


oh, my darling

by HwaStars



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Caregiver!Hongjoong, Diapers, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Headspace, Little Space, Little!San, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pet Names, Stuffed Toys, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, caregiver!seonghwa, little!Hongjoong, little!jongho, little!mingi, little!seonghwa, little!wooyoung, little!yeosang, little!yunho, parents SeongJoong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 47
Words: 49,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24180343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HwaStars/pseuds/HwaStars
Summary: *♡∞:｡.｡ ateez little space oneshots ｡.｡:∞♡*always accepting requests!
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Kang Yeosang, Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 411
Kudos: 733





	1. cranky jongho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho is angy when he sees what's for lunch

“There you go, baby boy.” Hongjoong places the warm bowl in front of the little who’s bouncing and clapping in his high chair. The boy’s excited smile and lit up eyes instantly drop when he sees the contents of the bowl, scrunching his nose in disgust.

“What’s wrong, Jjongie?” Hongjoong asks the little.

“Yucky!”

Hongjoong shakes his head and picks up the spoon. “Vegetables are yummy baby, and they help you grow into a big strong boy!” Hongjoong spoons the contents of the bowl, attempting to aeroplane it to Jongho, even making the silly little plane sound Seonghwa would make that always got Jongho to eat. The little just puffs out his cheeks and turns away with his arms crossed, aggressively dodging Hongjoong’s attempts to get the spoon near his mouth. “No!”

Okay, plan two.

Hongjoong eats off the spoon, making an exaggerated “mmm!” sound. “See how yummy it is, Jjongie? Don’t you want some too?” The little shakes his head, his arms still crossed and a tiny frown gracing his features. 

“Okay baby, how about this. I’ll leave the bowl and spoon right here, and you can eat it whenever you want. Is that okay? Appa will be right here.” Hongjoong turns to go sit in the living room, turning on the TV. He slowly starts to drift off to the gentle ambience of some cooking show in the background, when a loud clatter brings him back to reality.

He comes back to the dining table to find that Jongho has thrown away the spoon and knocked the bowl over in protest, asserting the fact that he absolutely did not want to, and was not going to eat icky vegetables with his lunch.

"Baby boy, that is completely unacceptable behavior!" Hongjoong immediately starts cleaning up the mess made by the little, his tone shifting angrily as it always did when one of the boys misbehaved. Even though Jongho had no idea what those words meant, he pouted and turned away to stare down at the table. He knew he must have done something wrong for Hongjoong to yell at him like that.

"Look at me right now little boy." Hongjoong spoke, coming back from washing the spoon and bowl. Jongho shook his head, already knowing what was coming with the change of tone and the lack of nicknames. 

"I'm going to count to three baby." Hongjoong’s voice drops. 

"One..." 

Jongho’s eyes stay fixed on the table, his lips pressed in a pout.

"Two…”

“Three-”

Jongho looks up at his appa, tears brimming his wide round eyes. 

"Oh, baby..." Hongjoong instantly pulls Jongho into an embrace, softly stroking his hair. Both big and little Jongho knew that Hongjoong didn’t have the heart to punish the littles anyway, especially when they were about to cry. The most he would do would be to scold them and give them a warning.

Hongjoong pulls away, his hands on Jongho’s shoulders with a serious look on his face. 

"My baby, you know what you did was bad. We don't throw things when we're angry, do we?" Jongho’s pout only grows more as he averts his gaze down to his fiddling hands, shaking his head. Hongjoong uses a finger to lift the boy’s chin up to meet his gaze. 

"What do we do when we're angry, baby?" He says softly. 

"We..." Jongho sniffs. "We use our words." 

"That's right, baby. So why didn't you use your words like a good boy?" Hongjoong starts soothingly stroking the boy’s hair.

The tears spill onto Jongho's cheeks as he vigorously shakes his head, still unable to get his words out and instead letting out little whimpers.

Hongjoong sighs in defeat, wiping the boy’s tears away. "Appa will let it slide this time, but if it happens again, you know what appa has to do." He runs his fingers through the boy’s raven locks and presses a small kiss to his forehead. It was times like this he wished one of the others was here to help him with the littles. Little Jongho was usually so well behaved - he would expect him to act up the least out of all the boys.

Jongho nods quietly, finally meeting Hongjoong’s gaze. "'m sorry appa, Jjongie won't be bad again." Jongho says shakily.

"I know you won't, my prince. Now, how does mac and cheese sound?" The boy’s face lights up again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twitter: @HEEHEEJ1N  
> tumblr: @sansseireis


	2. beach day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the littles have a beach day with their appa and papa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @BabieJongho ! i hope you like it <3

Finally, the day had come. The day everybody, especially the littles, had been waiting for. It felt like years, they had been waiting for this moment. 

“Okay boys, I’m not waiting for anyone! Don’t cry if you get left behind!” Hongjoong’s yell was heard loud and clear through the dorm, and responded to with the complaining whines of 6 littles. The whines were immediately followed by the pattering footsteps of six littles, all in their ridiculously bright, multicoloured beach shorts with their arms full of random playthings they’d be taking to the beach. “Okay appa, ready!” The eldest of the bunch grins.

Hongjoong wasn’t sure when the obsession with the beach began - maybe it was when he got San that beach-themed colouring book, or when they were talking about how they wanted to do a concept like Wave again. Maybe when the littles huddled together to watch the Blue’s Clues episode where the bright blue puppy went to the beach? The little remnants of the beach in the ATEEZ dorms snowballed into 6 littles repeatedly begging their caregivers if they could have a beach day. It at least gave Hongjoong one little benefit. Whenever one of the littles would misbehave, he’d pull the beach card; “Do you want your beach day or not?”

Of course, the caregivers were completely on board with the idea, but Hongjoong still had his worries.

“Hwa, what if people judge them when they’re all little in public? I can’t have anybody hurting the fragile hearts of our little babies-”. He was cut off by his boyfriend pressing a finger to his lips, effectively shushing him. 

“Joong-ah, you want them to be happy, don’t you?” Hongjoong nods. “Then let them have their beach day. It’s just one day, and they’ll be so happy they won’t bother you for anything again.” Seonghwa sighs when he sees Hongjoong still dejected and not convinced. “Come on, Hongjoong. What’s the worst that could happen?”

A lot, apparently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The littles all cheered in unison in the overcrowded van when the clear view of the beaming ocean and yellow sand came into view. When the van stopped, Hongjoong turned to face the littles from the passenger seat. All of them, especially Seonghwa, knew what was coming.

“Okay, ground rules.” 

The littles all groan, antsy to get out of the van and spend hours on the beach before they tired themselves out.

“Don’t be like that, or papa will turn this van around and drive us all back home.” Hongjoong scolded, with Seonghwa holding back a laugh from the driver’s seat. The littles all went quiet, all their attention drawn to Hongjoong.

“I expect you all to be on your best behaviour, or you’ll be punished when we get home. You’ll all be in pairs and stay together with your buddy the whole time so we don’t lose anybody. Appa and papa will go with you if you want to go into the water. And most importantly…” 

The littles hold a collective breath.

“Have fun, my babies.” Hongjoong smiles, a complete shift from his tone from a few seconds ago.

The littles all start cheering and chattering again, intermittent yells of “Beach! Beach!”” heard here and there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**_Yeosang + Jongho_ **

The two littles are hunched over, avidly whispering to each other and pointing at something in the wet sand on the seashore. 

“No, that’s not how you spell appa’s name!” The smaller blonde haired boy whisper screams.

“Yes it is! Jjongie knows!” The younger’s finger draws messily in the wet sand. Yeosang furiously shakes his head. “Like  _ this. _ ” He scoops a heap of wet sand over Jongho’s inscription and writes over it with his finger. Jongho’s about to yell at the elder when-

“What are you two up to?” A velvet voice comes from behind them, startling both of them. Seonghwa raises a brow, looking at the two suspicious looking boys.

“Gift, for appa and papa!” Jongho gives Seonghwa his angelic gummy smile. 

“Oh? Can papa see it?” Seonghwa asks curiously, wondering what the pair were trying so desperately to hide. 

“Not finished yet! Wait!” Yeosang shakes his head, turning away from their papa and returning to whisper to Jongho, giddy with excitement. Jongho seems to sigh at whatever Yeosang said to him, accepting defeat and slumping back on the sand, watching the blonde work away at the sand. Seonghwa giggles at the comedic pair, patiently sitting back on the sand and waiting for Yeosang to finish whatever he was working on.

“Done!” The two look at their papa expectantly, revealing their “masterpiece”. 

“ _ Sangie and Jjongie love Honggjung and Songwa _ ” the writing in the sand read, decorated with little seashells. 

Seonghwa lets out an airy laugh, ruffling the littles’ hair. “I’m so proud of you! You’re both so creative and smart! Papa loves it.” 

Yeosang smiles proudly. “Sangie did all the work. Jjongie help a little bit.” He says smugly. Jongho pouts and lightly slaps his arm, huffing. “Jjongie help a lot! My idea!” He whines.

“Well, I’m proud of both of you, my princes. Why don’t we show appa as well?” 

The pair nod eagerly. They couldn’t wait for their appa to see just how smart they had gotten as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**_San + Wooyoung_ **

San and Wooyoung occupy themselves with a game of I Spy after splashing about in the ocean and wearing themselves out. They both sit content on the beach towels with their appa and papa entertaining themselves with watching the two’s extravagant word game.

“Hmm… I spy with my little eye… something beginning with B!” 

San claps and yells, “Beach!”

“No!”

“Ball?” 

“Nope.” 

San sighs defeated, leaning his hand against his cheek, which squishes his cheek up adorably. He pouts, unable to spot anything else beginning with B. “What is it?” 

Wooyoung stumbles over his words. “B-boyfriend!”

San tilts his head curiously. “What’s that? Big word!” He gasps.

This catches the attention of the two caregivers, who smile at each other knowingly, curious as to where the littles’ conversation may head. 

“Appa and papa boyfriends! They love each other so they hold hands and kiss and stuff!” Wooyoung exaggeratedly pretends to gag, making the two littles giggle in unison. 

“I love Wooyoungie. Wooyoungie is my boyfriend?” San asks while taking Wooyoung’s hands in his, the question more directed at the two eldest. He assumes they’d know more about the topic, his little mind curious as to what this whole “boyfriend” thing could be about.

Hongjoong shakes his head. “Woo and San are like brothers, you love each other differently than how me and papa love each other. Make sense?” 

San looks visibly confused. “Not rweally.” 

Seonghwa steps in, Hongjoong silently thanking him internally. He feels as though this is the equivalent of giving teenagers “the talk”. 

“Me and appa love each other, and so do Wooyoungie and San, but you two are too little to be boyfriends. And Sannie, Woo is like your little brother, so you have to take care of him, okay?” San nods, understanding a bit better now. “I promise!” 

“Good. Now, do you guys want to go back and join the rest of your brothers in the water?” 

The two littles nod excitedly with their identical grins. Hongjoong smiles fondly at his significant other as they get up to accompany the littles, wondering how he got so lucky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**_Yunho + Mingi_ **

Yunho and Mingi had the brilliant idea of having a sandcastle competition, and having the rest of their family judge who had the better sandcastle. The pair were gifted their own sandcastle building sets when they told Seonghwa and Hongjoong their idea for what they’d do when they went to the beach. 

The pair were silent, focused and quickly working away at their respective sandcastles, knowing that they had to go home soon. Hongjoong told them they’d go home “when the sun starts to go down into the ocean”. Splayed out around them were an assortment of brightly coloured buckets and shovels. Yunho had his tongue stuck out between his teeth as he topped off his almost finished castle with a large seashell he found on the shore, occasionally stealing glances at Mingi’s sandcastle for ideas.

“Stop cheating, Yunnie!”

“‘M not cheating!” 

“Yes you are, you keep looking at Minki’s castle!” 

Yunho sighs, ignoring the redhead before placing one last seashell on the “door” of his castle, and declaring himself finished. He looks back, admiring his work. Though parts of the sandcastle are starting to collapse, he’s quite proud of it. Yunho gets up to wobble over to gather the rest of his family, who are all located in different areas, for the official “judgement”. He calls over Yeosang and Jongho from the rock pools where they’re fascinated by a starfish, San and Wooyoung from the edge of the ocean, which they keep jumping away from, and Seonghwa and Hongjoong from their comfortable spot on the beach towel.

Hongjoong and Seonghwa decided it would be better for them not to vote for or against either of their babies to avoid either of the littles getting offended, so they let the four remaining kids vote for Mingi or Yunho. Hongjoong draws up a table in the sand with Yunho and Mingi’s names on either side.

“Okay, kids. Draw a line under the name of whoever’s sandcastle you like better.” 

Once the Yeosang, Jongho, Wooyoung and San move away from the makeshift table in the sand, the score is revealed.

3-1 to Yunho.

Yunho lets out a successful cheer, while Mingi huffs. “That’s not fair, Yunnie cheated!” 

“No, I didn’t! Minki is just jealous because Yunnie won!” Yunho says, sticking his tongue out at the younger.

“Come on Yunho, don’t be mean to your brother.” Seonghwa scolds him, sensing a temper tantrum coming from either one of them soon.

And lo and behold, he was right. Mingi crosses his arms and huffs again. With tears in his eyes, he trudges off back to the beach towel. He knows he’d get in trouble if he went any further, so he plops himself down on the towel, burying his head in his arms.

“Stay with your appa kids, I’m going to go talk to Minnie.” 

Seonghwa makes his way to where Mingi is now sobbing quietly. He makes himself comfortable next to the little, wrapping his arms around him without a word. 

“Can you look at me, baby?” Mingi looks up at his papa and sniffs, his cheeks wet with his tears and his face red and puffed up. Seonghwa wipes the little’s tears away with his thumb, even though they’re still flowing freely.

“What’s got you so upset, prince?” 

Mingi struggles to speak, hiccuping here and there. “M-minki sandcastle better than Yunnie! Yunnie only win b-because he cheat!” Mingi pouts and turns away embarrassedly from his elder.

“It’s okay, my baby. Can I tell you a little secret?” Mingi perks up in interest. “Papa thinks your sandcastle looked better.” He whispers dramatically. The little gasps. His face instantly lights up as he hugs Seonghwa. “T’ank you papa!”. Seonghwa knows Hongjoong probably would’ve given him a long lecture about not picking one of the littles over the other, even if it was over something as trivial as a sandcastle, but he’d do anything to see little Mingi’s bright gummy eye smile. “But I think you should apologize to Yunho. Even if he didn’t cheat, you still yelled at him.” Mingi nods in defeat, his gaze lifting up to see the rest of their family making their way to the beach towel, with everything packed up.

“Ready to go home?” The kids all nod in response to Hongjoong, not bothering to ask to stay longer as they were all honestly extremely tired from the long day.

Mingi confronts Yunho, not looking at the taller boy as he mumbles, “Minki’s sorry Yunnie. Didn’t mean to yell.” Yunho smiles, resembling a happy golden retriever. “Is okay! And Yunnie’s sorry for being a meanie.” The two hug each other as a way of forgiving each other. They don’t notice their caregivers gazing at them lovingly as they pack up the rest of their things. 

All in all, though chaotic, the beach day was fun for everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**_Hongjoong + Seonghwa_ **

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Seonghwa says almost smugly. The couple were seated in front of the TV, hands intertwined and watching a drama Seonghwa had been nagging the younger to watch for a while.

The dorms were unusually quiet, with the only sound coming from the TV. All the littles had immediately passed out in their respective rooms when they got home, and although Hongjoong and Seonghwa loved every second spent with their littles, they appreciated every moment they had alone just as much. 

“Mhm, you were right.” Hongjoong says softly. “I didn’t say it before, but thank you Hwa. If you didn’t convince me to let them go to the beach I probably wouldn’t have let them. I was just too worried about all the things that could go wrong, but seeing them all so happy today… It really means the world to me.” Seonghwa squeezes his hand, softly.

“I love you, Hongjoong.”

“Love you too, Hwa.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> couldn't help but add some seongjoong fluff at the end lol
> 
> feel free to request!! 🥺


	3. appa and papa's special relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hongjoong and seonghwa are dating now, but how does that affect the littles?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one might not be that great, school just started and i'm swamped so updates will probably be a bit slow too ;(

Seonghwa and Hongjoong had collectively decided, they would take their relationship slow and hide it from the members for the first few months.

Especially when they were little. 

The littles already knew Seonghwa as "Hwa-hyung." Hongjoong knows that since he's their appa, the littles would question what that would make Seonghwa if they were dating. He also knows that "dating" doesn't exist in the littles' dictionaries - they'd immediately assume the two were married or something, and it’d just confuse them more.

Sneaking around the members and spending time together proved to be difficult. The only time the couple got alone together was after their busy schedules for the day, when they'd finally get back to their shared dorm room. The members would usually be too exhausted to spend time together - especially the couple. During comeback season, their dates consisted of laying in bed, each of them with one earphone in one ear and falling asleep in each other's arms, usually to the lull of a random ASMR video or cute baby compilation Seonghwa picked out. The pair would always come up with excuses if/when one of the members found them sleeping together in the same bunk. It was always "Hongjoong had a nightmare so he came to my bed" or "Seonghwa was looking for something but then fell asleep in my bed”. The members would usually shrug it off, not questioning them. 

Seonghwa and Hongjoong could keep it up for at least one more month before coming clean to their fellow members, right? Wrong. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

San jerks awake, instantly noticing the sweat sticking to his skin and how hard he was breathing, as though he just ran a marathon. The digital clock on his bedside table reads _12:46am_. 

San whimpers and struggles out of the little blanket burrito he made in his sleep, fishing around for the paci he kept under his pillow that always brought him comfort in moments like this. The little frequently suffered from nightmares, and tried everything he could to help stop them. He'd sleep surrounded with his plushies, as though they'd protect him from the bad dreams, and Hongjoong even gave him a special star shaped night light, but they didn't help much. 

San clumsily gets out of bed, trying his best not to wake up Yunho sleeping in the bunk above him. He quietly opens the door and waddles over to Seonghwa and Hongjoong's room with Shiber safely tucked in his arm, hoping his appa wouldn't be upset with him for waking him up so late. He quietly opens the door to the pair's shared room, tiredly rubbing his eyes. The little hears shuffling coming, and what sounds like Hongjoong’s heavy breathing coming from one of the bunks. "A-appa?" the little says, muffled by the paci. No response. He then notices Hongjoong's bedsheets moving, wondering if maybe his appa was having a nightmare like he did. 

When San moves closer to the bed, he sees a familiar head of black hair looming over his appa’s figure. "Hwa hyung?" San blinks and gasps curiously, his paci clattering to the floor when he notices the older's lips on Hongjoong's, all his tiredness slipping away. The eldest jerks, noticing the little in his oversized pajamas staring at them wide eyed. The two break apart, looking at the little with the same wide eyed expression. 

"W-what Hwa doing to appa?" San says quietly, still quite confused as to what he walked in on, a million questions running through his head. Why was Hwa hyung in the same bed as his appa? Why were their lips touching? Don’t people only do that when they’re in love? Wasn't that icky?

Hongjoong obviously knows how to deal with the situation much better than Seonghwa would, being the little's main caregiver. He decides to take the easiest course of action; ignoring the little and instead shifting the question to him. 

"What are you doing up so late, darling? Did Sannie have a nightmare?" 

San pouts, all thoughts of what he walked in on pushed to the back of his mind. "Sannie had n-nightm-" he sighs, struggling to think of what that word Hongjoong used was. He instantly gives up, too tired to think too much about anything. "Bad dweam." San pouts, clumsily wobbling over to the bed and making himself comfortable between Hongjoong and Seonghwa, wrapping his arms around the leader and snuggling into his chest. He relaxes when he feels Hongjoong's hand on the back of his head, running his fingers through his hair. 

Seonghwa silently looks up at his boyfriend, as though like a silent cry for help, not quite sure what he’s supposed to do. Hongjoong doesn’t respond, all his attention drawn to comforting the little. Seonghwa awkwardly shifts to leave the pair alone in the bed, attempting to make his way up to his own bunk. San whines, mumbling quietly while pulling on the older's shirt, "Papa stay pwease?" 

_Papa._

The word rings in Seonghwa's head, realising the little must've come up with his own assumption as to what the nature of his relationship with Hongjoong was. The group always called them a husband and wife as a joke, but it never rang more true than at this moment. His heart melts at the idea of the little thinking of him as a father figure - he even tears up a little bit. Seonghwa wasn't complaining about being called “papa” at all.

Seonghwa picks up San’s paci that fell to the floor on the way back to the bed. After a bit of uncomfortable shifting around to fit the three men in the small bunk bed, the couple are embracing with San in the middle, squished comfortably like a sandwich. 

"It's okay, papa's here." Seonghwa quietly whispers to San, slipping the paci back into the little’s mouth, unaware of the heartfelt smile and heart eyes Hongjoong gave him. The three comfortably fall asleep to the sound of each other’s breathing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The couple knew little Sannie wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut for long regarding the events of the previous night, so they took it upon themselves to talk to the littles. That’s how they got here, the littles all looking up at them confused with their big curious doe eyes from the sofa.

“So, your appa and I have a very special relationship-” Seonghwa says before he’s cut off by Hongjoong tapping his arm and shaking his head.

“They don’t know what that means, Hwa. Smaller words.” He says quietly so the littles won’t hear. Seonghwa obviously struggles with coming up with a way he can word it. How was he supposed to say, “I love your appa very much, so I guess that makes me your papa now.” 

Oh, that was it! 

“Well… I love Hongjoong- I mean appa very much, so that means Hwa-hyung is your papa now. Understand?” The littles still look a tad bit confused, but they nod anyway. San nods enthusiastically, proud of knowing the pair's little secret before any of the others did. Jongho looks at Seonghwa and tilts his head cutely. “Papa?” He says, as though experimenting with how the name sounded, and oh, Seonghwa’s heart melts again at how cute it sounds coming from the youngest. 

He didn’t think his weak heart could handle hearing “papa” for the first time another four times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to request ><


	4. insecure sangie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeosang is insecure about regressing around his boyfriend. but jongho shows him it's okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no thoughts head empty except little yeosang

Yeosang had a _little_ problem.

He and Jongho had the dorms to themselves, and normally he would be thrilled - he could kiss and cuddle his boyfriend as much as he wanted without having to deal with any of the members screaming about PDA. But here he is, in his boyfriend’s embrace in front of the TV binge watching “Crash Landing on You”, and he can feel himself slowly slipping into his little headspace.

Yeosang would say he was completely comfortable regressing around all of the members - but that was only when either Hongjoong or Seonghwa were around as well to take care of him. He didn’t want to bother anybody else. So needless to say, this was a problem for him. He isn’t sure what triggered it; it might have been Jongho’s natural and comforting cologne scent, the warmth of being engulfed in his boyfriend’s arms, or the oversized pink hoodie he was in that made him feel tiny. So what would Yeosang do? Repress it of course.

That was until Jongho asked if he wanted to have dinner. “Y-yes please”, Yeosang squeaks out, his voice higher than usual, the way it would normally go when he regressed. The younger raises an eyebrow suspiciously. Yeosang coughs, pretending as though he had to clear his throat, and untangles himself to let Jongho get up. “Yeah, thanks.” Yeosang says, his voice back to normal. Jongho doesn’t question it and makes his way to the kitchen to heat up and plate leftovers from the day before. 

When the couple situate themselves at the dining table, Jongho notices Yeosang pushing his food around with his fork with a small pout on his face, not eating it yet.

“You okay, love? Do you want to eat something else?” Jongho asks. 

Yeosang shakes his head, feeling too small to say anything. He didn’t have a problem with the food - it was just that whenever he was this little, he would need someone to feed him. He put the fork down and started to take deep breaths. He wanted Hongjoong and Seonghwa here. 

Jongho could tell his boyfriend was stressed out and came to his side. “Baby, what’s wrong? Please, tell me.” He takes Yeosang’s hand in his as his boyfriend looks up at him.

“S-Sangie wittle.” He manages to get out shakily. 

“Oh, sweetheart…” Jongho picks up Yeosang with little effort, carrying him over to the sofa. They return back to their same cuddling position from earlier. Jongho shuffles around to find the remote, changing the TV channel from the drama to a kids show. Yeosang’s eyes light up happily, any and all nervousness from before slipping away.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner, love?” Jongho asks quietly, not wanting to intimidate the little. Yeosang shakes his head and focuses his attention back to the bright and colourful show playing on the TV. Jongho decides it probably isn’t the best time to question him about it, though he hopes Yeosang isn’t uncomfortable regressing around him. Honestly, Jongho didn’t have much experience taking care of littles - it was usually Hongjoong or Seonghwa taking care of them. When one of the others would regress, it would trigger his little space too, so he never really had to take care of anyone else when they were little. He knew he couldn’t regress himself right now; someone had to take care of little Yeosang since he usually regressed to a much younger age than the others would. He decides he’ll take care of Yeosang as Hongjoong and Seonghwa normally would.

“Baby, you still have to have dinner. Can I get you a bottle?” Jongho asks. Yeosang nods shyly, though he still holds onto Jongho’s sleeve, making it difficult for him to get up. “I have to get up, sweetheart.” Yeosang pouts and reluctantly lets go.

Jongho goes back to the kitchen to get one of their baby bottles, filling it up with milk and warming it up to the right temperature. He smiles to himself when he hears Yeosang quietly and nonsensically babbling in response to the comical questions the cartoon would ask the audience. When he gets back to the couch, Yeosang’s made himself comfortable, wrapping himself in their fluffy blanket like a burrito. Jongho laughs and lays the little over his lap so he’s comfortably leaning against the arm of the sofa. He gently feeds the nipple of the bottle against Yeosang’s lips, the little accepting it and sucking softly. 

By the time Yeosang finishes the bottle, he’s struggling to keep his eyes open. Jongho thinks it’s the cutest sight ever, seeing Yeosang forcing himself awake everytime his eyes close. “Come on baby boy, I think it’s bedtime.” Yeosang whines in complaint but doesn’t do or say anything else to stop Jongho from picking him up and burping him. Jongho turns the TV off and carries Yeosang to their bedroom. 

He lays him down on the bed and pulls him against his chest. “Do you need your paci?” Yeosang shakes his head. “I-I think I’m big now, Jongho.” Yeosang says quietly, his voice back to normal. 

“Oh.” Jongho says. He’s not entirely sure why he’s just a little bit disappointed - maybe he wanted to spend a bit more time taking care of Yeosang. He realizes he enjoyed playing the role of a caregiver.

“I’m sorry love, that was embarrassing-” Yeosang starts to say before Jongho cuts him off.

“No, it wasn’t. Sang, I don’t want you feeling like you have to stop yourself from regressing around me when we’re alone. And honestly, I loved taking care of you.” Jongho says.

Yeosang fiddles with the strings of his hoodie, avoiding eye contact with Jongho. “R-Really? I’m not a burden?” 

It surprises Jongho that he could think something like that when it was quite the opposite. “Not at all, love. I love you, and that means every single part of you.” He takes Yeosang’s hand in his and presses a kiss to it. 

“I love you too.” Yeosang mumbles, snuggling closer to his lover. The two comfortably fall asleep in each other’s embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm unoriginal and running out of ideas, please request 🥺


	5. stormy night (wooyoung)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wooyoung is scared of the storm outside and seeks comfort from his papa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @fabulousweirdo , i hope you like it :)

**_11:37pm_ **

Seonghwa always enjoyed this kind of weather. The calming sound of rain and thunder always put him in a good mood, and helped him focus more. With the rest of the members asleep, this is one of the rare moments he gets to himself. Seonghwa decides he’ll be productive this evening and clean up the mess the littles made during the day in the living room. 

Seonghwa isn’t surprised to see just how big the mess was. He’s greeted to a wide array of toys splayed about in the living room; stuffies, train sets, puzzle pieces, dolls, action figures were all spread out on the littles’ playmat. There are even a few pacis here and there - they must’ve fallen out while they were all squealing in excitement. He makes a mental note to get the littles clips for their pacis. Seonghwa sighs knowing cleaning all of this would be a hefty task -- but no better time than the present, right? He starts by picking up the toys and putting them back in their respective places. 

His next order of business would be vacuuming and lint rolling the floor, though he decides he’ll do this later since the sound would probably wake somebody up. He sighs, content with the work he got done and ready to go to bed when-

“Papa?” 

He turns to see Wooyoung in front of the door of his room with his thumb in his mouth, holding onto his little blue blanket that he couldn’t go to sleep without.

“Hey Woo,” Seonghwa approaches the little, noticing that he seems nervous. “Why are you out of bed, little one?” He runs a hand through his raven locks, the little leaning into the touch. 

“S-Scary” Wooyoung mumbles around his thumb.

Seonghwa gently removes Wooyoung’s thumb from his mouth and picks the little up, carrying him over to the couch. “What’s scary, little one? Did you have a bad dream?” 

Wooyoung shakes his head. “Noise outside... roar! Scary… Can’t sleep”. Wooyoung gets out. Seonghwa can tell he’s in a younger headspace than usual. Any traces of the usually energetic and loud boy aren’t visible. The younger boy pouts, showing off his cute little lip mole. Seonghwa has to stop himself from cooing at how adorable Wooyoung is, knowing how upset he probably is. 

“The thunder isn’t scary baby, it can’t hurt you I promise. Your papa is here to protect you.” He kisses Wooyoung’s forehead reassuringly. “Woo don’ like it…” The little shakes his head and buries his face into Seonghwa’s neck. Seonghwa ponders for a moment, thinking of ways he could comfort the little right now. Wooyoung was shaking in his embrace and had his hands over his ears to block out the sound - something tells him that his reassuring words and cuddles wouldn’t be enough to put him to sleep right now.

Seonghwa takes the little’s hands in his and removes them from his ears. “Hey Woo, I’m gonna tell you something but you can’t tell appa about it. Promise?” The little curiously looks up at him and nods. “I’ll let you watch some TV right now, but only a little bit. Will that make you feel better?” Wooyoung’s eyes light up and he nods eagerly. “Yes papa, thank you!” He squeals excitedly. Seonghwa presses a finger to his lips to remind the little to be quiet and gets up to set up The Lion King - Wooyoung’s favourite movie - on the DVD player. He puts the TV on the lowest volume to avoid anyone, especially Hongjoong, waking up.

Another particularly loud crack of thunder echoes outside, momentarily lighting the room up with a white flash. Wooyoung whimpers and snuggles closer to Seonghwa, who fishes around for a paci while embracing the little with one arm. He finds a baby blue paci in the toy chest that he put away earlier, and presses it to Wooyoung’s lips. The little accepts it gratefully and does his best to focus his attention back to the movie as the paci brings him more comfort. 

“You’re so brave, little lion. You’re like Simba.” Seonghwa says when the yellow lion shows up on the screen. Wooyoung giggles around the pacifier. He notices the littles’ glassy eyes already becoming heavy with sleep. At least breaking one of the littles’ rules was worth it.

Seonghwa isn’t sure when either of them fell asleep. The light of the morning sun streams in through the windows, and thankfully, the storm has passed. It takes a moment for him to gather his bearings - he notices his body’s all sore from the position he was sleeping in. He recalls the events of the night before and realizes the pair must’ve fallen asleep on the couch together. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was early enough that none of the members were out of bed yet. Seonghwa opens his eyes to the sight of Wooyoung with his hands gently grasped around his blue blanket, softly sucking on his pacifier. 

The sight is one of the cutest he’s ever seen. 

He pulls the little closer to his chest and allows himself to fall asleep again in what was the most comforting embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for all the requests last chapter, keep them coming ! <3


	6. icky mingi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mingi is sick and stubborn. at least he has yunho to take care of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double update! o; thank you for the request @mytinyrosestay ! sorry it's short but i hope you like it :)

Mingi woke up with his head feeling fuzzy and his nose feeling stuffy. He was much warmer than usual - which was strange since it was winter. He got out of bed with a groan, his head pounding with every step he took. He was probably fine though, he told himself, but took an aspirin just to be sure.

Mingi carried out his daily tasks as he normally would - well at least he tried to. He couldn’t get through practice without sneezing at least twice through every song or stumbling through a few steps. He kept insisting he was fine when the members would ask, but finally, Hongjoong had enough. He paused the song and gave Mingi an accusing look. 

“Come on Mingi, we’re going home. You can’t get through practice like this.” 

Mingi furiously shakes his head. “No, I told you hyung, I’m fine-” He interrupts himself with yet another sneeze, followed by a coughing fit. The members all worriedly look at Mingi, with his puffy red face and watering eyes as he takes a moment to sniff and recover. Before he can say anything, Hongjoong cuts him off.

“You’re not fine, come on. We’re going home.” Hongjoong’s tone leaves no room for argument.

“‘M fine!” Mingi yells in a familiar voice. “M-Minnie can still dance…” He trails off before he bursts into tears. Mingi doesn’t know why he’s crying - he just wanted to do his best and the members weren’t letting him do that. The overwhelming feelings just pushed him into little space and made his head hurt even more. 

Seonghwa immediately takes his place as the comforting motherly figure and approaches the younger red haired male. “It’s okay, sweetheart”, he says soothingly, pulling him into a hug. “You did so well today, my love. But I think it’s time for you to go home with appa and get some rest, okay?” Mingi nods in defeat.

“I wanna go too!” Yunho pipes up. He knew he could trust Hongjoong to take care of Mingi, but he still wanted to be there for his boyfriend.

Hongjoong sighs. “Alright, if three of us aren’t going to be here then we may as well postpone practice for the day.” Though the rest of the members don’t outwardly express it, they’re thankful for the small break they get for the rest of the day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the boys get back to the dorm, Mingi is immediately ushered into bed with a cool towel laid over his head. Seonghwa and Hongjoong work in the kitchen to make him warm soup, while Yunho pulls up a chair next to Mingi’s bed to ensure that he can always be there to give him anything he needs - and also because being able to see how his boyfriend is doing puts his mind at ease.

“Y-Yunnie?” Mingi croaks out.

“Yes, dear?” 

“Cuddles, please?” 

It breaks his heart that he can’t give Mingi all the cuddles he deserves - but he didn’t want to get himself sick too. He had to stay healthy to take care of Mingi.

“I’m sorry love, I can’t. Otherwise Yunnie and everyone else will be icky too”. Mingi pouts and whines in complaint. “‘M not icky!” Yunho finds it adorable that even after his aggressive coughing fit in the car and having to struggle with each sentence, Mingi still refuses to accept he’s sick.

But for now, Yunho plays along.

“Of course not, dear. But you still need to have your medicine.” Mingi pouts and shakes his head. “Yucky!”

“Oh, but sweetheart. It’s strawberry flavoured.” Mingi perks up at this. “S-Stwawbewwy?” Yunho nods, knowing just how to get the little to have his medicine. “Fine.” Mingi still pouts.

Yunho measures out the right amount of the sweet medicine for Mingi to drink. “Ready, love? Say “ahh””. Mingi complies and takes the spoon in his mouth, scrunching his nose up and forcing himself to swallow the horrid liquid. “Doesn’t taste like stwawbewwy!” He complains.

“Well the hard part is over dear. You did so well.” 

“Head still… ouch”. Mingi mumbles cutely.

“It’s okay, the medicine might take a little time to work. But for now, how about I kiss it better?” Mingi nods eagerly and reaches out to hold Yunho’s hands. Yunho leans over to press a kiss to his left temple. He moves the wet towel so he can kiss his forehead, then his right temple. 

“Better?” 

“Better!” Mingi ponders for a moment. If he’s going to get special treatment, he may as well be a little bit spoiled, he thinks.

“Yunnie, can I have stuffie pwease?” Yunho nods and gets him his special puppy stuffie. Mingi says it’s his favourite one since it reminds him of Yunho. “Cartoon?” Yunho brings out his phone and plays an episode of Doraemon for him. “Paci, pwease?” Yunho gives him his favourite pink paci. By the time Mingi runs out of things to request from Yunho (which he provides with no questions asked), he’s completely pampered and so comfortable that he’s forgotten about how ill he feels. 

And Yunho’s in complete peace and comfort knowing he accomplished his goal of having his little boyfriend content and happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://blacklivesmatter.com/
> 
> https://bailproject.org/


	7. just wanna be loved (sangie)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> with six littles to take care of, it's difficult to pay equal attention to all of them. this also means some of them would occasionally feel left out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for 100 kudos!! it means the world to me. and thank you to everyone who comments and requests! <3
> 
> request from @SatanUiAgi , i hope you like it!

Yeosang wakes up in his little headspace - he feels floaty, like he's on a cloud, and has a strong desire to suck on something, like his paci. He happily giggles to himself as his thoughts drift off to his paci, his stuffies, his appa...

His appa! 

The little excitedly stumbles out of bed at the thought of his appa with his favourite bunny stuffie locked in his arm. He clumsily makes his way to Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s room, excited to get his daily morning kisses and hugs from his appa. He knocks on their door since he's too little to open it by himself right now. 

The door is answered by a disheveled Hongjoong. He has bags under his eyes, as though he hasn't slept in days, and wears a sunken expression, which somewhat lightens up when he sees Yeosang. Yeosang notices the brightly lit laptop screen on Hongjoong’s bed - appa was probably working on a song again, he figures. 

"Hey, Yeosangie." Hongjoong looks at him expectantly, as though expecting a good reason for being interrupted. 

"Sangie and appa play?" The little asks, fiddling with the ears of his stuffie shyly. 

Hongjoong takes a glance at his laptop, then back to the little. He sighs. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. appa's a bit busy right now, but I promise, I'll play with you later. How about you go to papa? I think he's in the living room with Woo, Sannie and Jongie." Yeosang pouts, but nods in understanding. 

"I love you, Sangie." Hongjoong says before ruffling his hair, kissing his forehead and closing the door. 

"Wove you too." The little still pouts and makes his way over to the living room, where like Hongjoong said, Seonghwa and the three littles are seated on their playmat. 

Wooyoung and San look to be in a heated argument over a stuffie, yells of "no, mine!" being thrown back and forth while they both pull on said stuffie. On the other side of the playmat, Jongho is completely unphased and entertaining himself with a plastic toy plane, giggling to himself when he makes “nyoom” sounds while flying it through the air. Seonghwa seems to be attempting to play the mediator, keeping his voice steady and telling the littles to calm down and behave.

"Come on boys, we share with our brothers. You don't both want a timeout, do you?" The statement is met with whines from both of the littles, followed by yells of who started it. 

Yeosang approaches the scene and pulls on the eldest's sleeve. Seonghwa doesn't need to hear Yeosang say anything to know he's in little space. "Hi, little one", he starts to say before he's cut off by the arguing pair yelling even louder than before, practically screaming at each other.

Seonghwa’s attention shifts back to the two arguing littles. He takes the stuffie away from both of them and starts his lecture on why sharing is important. Yeosang sighs and pouts at being ignored again, deciding he'd rather do something else than sit through hearing one of Seonghwa’s lectures for the hundredth time and seeing his brothers get punished. 

Yeosang finds himself back where he started his day - in his dorm room. He huffs unhappily, upset that none of his caregivers could spend time with him today. Yeosang shuffles around the room to look for his paci, too far into his headspace to remember where he keeps it. When he finally finds it in a bedside drawer, he puts it in his mouth and sucks it contentedly. After much struggle to do it by himself, he opens up YouTube on his phone and sets up one of his favourite cartoons. 

After a moment, Yeosang finds that he can’t focus on his cartoon - instead he’s replaying the events of today. Why did both appa and papa ignore him? His thoughts begin to spiral - did they love his brothers more than him? Did Sangie do something wrong? Before he knows what’s going on, his eyes are brimming with tears and his paci falls out of his mouth. He breathes heavily, trying to remember what his appa tells him whenever he feels like this - deep breath in, deep breath out. He doesn’t even notice that someone enters the room, until he feels a warm pair of arms around him. 

“W-Why Sangie crying? Sangie sad?” Jongho’s voice trembles, upset at seeing Yeosang so sad. Jongho pulls away from their embrace to look at Yeosang’s red, tear stained face, which doesn’t make him feel any better. 

“A-Appa and papa don’ love Sangie! T-Too busy!” He wails out. Jongho is confused, to say the least. Appa and papa always gave everyone their kisses and took care of them everyday. How could Yeosangie think that? Jongho shakes his head in disagreement.

“Appa and papa love Sangie lots n’ lots! And love Jongie, and Woo, and Sannie, and Minnie and Yunnie too!” Jongho softly presses a messy kiss to Yeosang’s nose as a way to comfort him and show his love for him. By the time Jongho’s finished his cute little speech, Seonghwa walks into the room, seemingly zoned out and exhausted just from dealing with San and Wooyoung’s argument. It seems he comes to Jongho and Yeosang - his more well behaved littles - as a break from the more mischievous pair. The eldest is immediately brought back to reality when he sees the crying little in the arms of the youngest member. He’d be sure to praise him later for taking care of and comforting Yeosang.

“Oh, my angel…” Seonghwa picks up the little, pacing around the room and softly bouncing him while patting his back - he knew this always brought comfort to Yeosang. “What’s wrong, baby boy? What made my little prince so upset?” The blonde boy sniffles and shakes his head. He feels too small to talk anymore. “Sangie say appa and papa too busy to love Sangie.” Jongho interjects casually. Seonghwa turns his gaze to the youngest, who looks back at him innocently. He shifts his attention back to the crying little, his main priority being comforting him.

“I love you so much, little one. So does appa, and all of your brothers. I know appa and papa are busy sometimes, but we still love you all the same, okay?” Yeosang nods into Seonghwa’s neck, his sniffles more intermittent now. “How about we all cuddle up and watch a movie together? Anything you like.” Yeosang looks up at his papa with doe eyes, shyly nodding in response. Seonghwa smiles, “Now, can I see my baby’s cute little smile?” Yeosang gives him a small smile, to which Seonghwa coos in response, kissing his forehead. “I love you, little prince. Now, let’s go to the living room.”


	8. lonely

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hongjoong is overworking himself again, which leaves both seonghwa and the littles stressed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my goodness, this is the longest thing i've ever written :p i haven't been able to update as frequently, so here's an extra long chapter to make up for it!
> 
> thank you for the request @AdrianWilde :) your comment made me really happy, i hope you like this chapter!

The season before a comeback was always a stressful one in the Ateez dorm. Though the anticipation of a potential comeback was exciting to the boys, it also meant they were all working ten times as hard.

Especially their precious leader, Kim Hongjoong.

As the eldest member and “mother” of the group, Seonghwa knew all too well that more work equals more stress for the boys - this also meant that they would regress more often, with at least one member little everyday. And unfortunately for him and the other members, their leader seemed to never stop working. 

He decides to pay a visit to Hongjoong’s studio in the morning - he was almost certain that the boy wouldn’t be taking care of himself after pulling an all nighter. Seonghwa knew Hongjoong didn’t like the boys worrying about him so much, but the least he could do was make sure he was okay while working away. His cold hands are warmed by the soup he made for Hongjoong as he climbs up the stairs of the KQ building, up to his studio. He would have to be quick - he didn’t trust the other six boys at the dorms by themselves. He half expected to be welcomed home with the sound of the fire alarm.

As expected, Hongjoong is sitting in front of a lit up computer screen filled with squiggly coloured bars and lines that Seonghwa doesn’t understand. The sound of Hongjoong’s  _ click click click _ on his keyboard echoes through the studio. He hasn’t even noticed the older’s presence until he puts down the thermos of soup on his table intentionally harder than he normally would.

“Jesus Seonghwa, you scared me.” The blonde boy says groggily, looking as though he’s about to pass out at any second.

“Good to see you too.” Seonghwa says sarcastically. “Come on, don’t you think you’ve done enough for the week, Joong?” Hongjoong responds with a shake of his head, his attention still drawn to the computer screen.

“The boys miss their appa.” Seonghwa says, knowing just how to get Hongjoong to live up to his promises of coming home more often. Hongjoong smiles softly. 

“Really, Hwa? You’re using our kids to get me to come home?” Seonghwa smiles to himself, finding it endearing that Hongjoong refers to the members as “their kids”. 

“Is it working?” He gives Hongjoong a teasing look. Hongjoong sighs and turns his chair to finally look at Seonghwa, wheeling closer to where he’s seated on the leather arm of the couch. He reaches up to press a light kiss to the tip of Seonghwa’s nose.

“You know I come home for you too Hwa, not just the boys.” He says softly. “Just give me one more hour and I’ll be done, okay?” 

Seonghwa pauses, as though considering the offer. “Okay, but only one hour. I love you, Joong.” 

“Love you too Hwa.” 

Seonghwa leaves him with a final kiss, knowing he would come back home to at least one of the members in their headspace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The days went by, and the boys were seeing Hongjoong less and less. Hongjoong always asked Seonghwa for one more hour in the studio - but one hour would become two, then two would become three, then suddenly he was in the studio all day.

Hongjoong assumed Seonghwa would be asleep when he would come home at 3am almost everyday, even when he told his boyfriend he’d be finished by 12. Little did he know Seonghwa was wide awake in bed while waiting for him - he couldn’t sleep properly without Hongjoong cuddling him, but he’d never let him know that. Every night when he’d feign being asleep, he would hear Hongjoong’s “love you, Hwa” in his ear, instantly putting him to sleep.

During the day, Seonghwa would be dealing with six littles who were frustrated from not seeing their appa. Yes, six at once - it was like a domino effect. Unfortunately for Hwa, when one member would regress, it would make the other members slip as well. It wasn’t that he didn’t like spending time with the littles, but it was especially hard to take care of them while Hongjoong was away.

Trying to explain to the littles that Hongjoong was still working was all the incentive needed for a temper tantrum, or full blown waterworks. 

Being one of the clingier members towards Hongjoong, Yeosang was the first to crack. He couldn’t stop crying into Seonghwa’s chest when he told him appa was still working for about the fifth time that week. And of course, the sight of Yeosang upset was enough to make Jongho cry as well. 

So here he was, with two crying littles, two arguing over who knows what, and the other two sleeping on the couch. Seonghwa takes a deep breath, his first priority being comforting the two upset littles. He cuddles them both, one in each arm, telling them how much he loves them and that their appa would be back before they knew it. Though not by much, it still seemed to calm them down, their sobs reducing to soft sniffles.

“Wanna take a nap, my princes?” The two nod at the same time, the crying wearing them out. Yeosang seemed to have gone nonverbal, while Jongho was whimpering out in incoherent babbles. 

“I know baby, I know. Papa misses appa too, so much.” Seonghwa’s heart would break whenever any of the littles were upset, but he truly missed Hongjoong as well. His heart felt heavy with the overall morale in the dorm decreasing day by day. Seonghwa decides he has to keep the group together by keeping himself happy - and hopefully it would be enough to keep the rest of the members somewhat cheered up.

When Seonghwa comes back to the living room after putting Yeosang and Jongho down for their nap, he returns to Mingi and San yelling at each other. Seonghwa sighs, sitting the two littles down and calming them down. He really couldn’t catch a break, could he?

“Quiet boys, your brothers are sleeping.” He says, referring to both Yeosang and Jongho in their room, and Wooyoung and Yunho sleeping peacefully on the sofa. “What’s going on?” 

“S-Sannie say appa don’ love us!” Mingi says. He looks close to tears, his bottom lip quivering.

Though Seonghwa initially feels a sense of anger, it’s overcome with both confusion and sadness. He feels like he knows what may have given San that idea. “Sannie, why would you say something like that? You know appa loves us all very much.” 

San shakes his head, pouting and crossing his arms. He avoids looking at both Seonghwa and Mingi. “Appa don’ love us! Appa love work more than us!” He says, quieter than before. 

Seonghwa takes Mingi into his arms, embracing him and softly stroking his faded red hair so he isn’t the third one to cry today. He keeps his voice steady despite how much he wants to just vent out his frustrations. The littles always come first, he reminds himself. 

“Sweetheart, like I said, appa loves us all so so much, he just has a lot to do. Appa doesn’t want to be away from his babies either but that’s just how it is. Besides, appa is working everyday so that we can all be happy. Okay?” 

San huffs, turning away from Seonghwa and Mingi, his arms still crossed.

“Also, papa loves you so much that it makes up for appa not always being here.” 

Nothing. 

“Does Sannie want cuddles?” 

San turns his head curiously, but shakes his head again and goes back to stubbornly avoiding eye contact.

“Hmm, that’s a shame baby. I was gonna make dino nuggies for you, but if you don’t want them…”

There it is. San leaps up excitedly, turning around to face Seonghwa. “Sannie wants nuggies! I’ll be extra good, pwomise!” He grins cutely, giving him his best puppy eyes. Seonghwa laughs. He notices Mingi has fallen asleep in his arms.

“Okay precious, I’m gonna put Mingi to bed with your brothers then make your nuggets. Is that okay?” San nods, seating himself where Wooyoung and Yunho are passed out and waiting obediently.

Merely an hour later, all of the littles are finally in bed. As much as Seonghwa loves to take care of his precious boys, he needed time by himself every now and then to recharge. He didn’t realise it would be so much harder without his boyfriend there to help him - he assumed he would be able to manage them while Hongjoong was gone, but clearly he bit off more than he could chew. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Kim Hongjoong, I swear I’m going to kill you.” 

It isn’t what Hongjoong expects to come home to at three in the morning. He didn’t even expect to be seeing anyone awake. But here his boyfriend was in the living room, as though he was waiting for him to come home.

“Hwa-” 

“No, stop. Do you have any idea what I’ve been dealing with for the last week?” 

Hongjoong is speechless. Seonghwa would never speak to him, let alone anyone like this. His tone was harsh, almost aggressive. He gets a feeling it’d be best for him not to say anything right now.

“Hongjoong, I’ve been patient with you. We all have. We appreciate you working hard for us so damn much, but for the love of god,  _ please _ take a break. At least come home.”

Hongjoong’s about to say something when Seonghwa cuts him off again. “Do you never think about what the littles are feeling when their appa isn’t there for them? Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that they might be crying every single day because they think their appa doesn’t love them? Have you ever considered how  _ I  _ feel, Hongjoong? Having to convince them that they haven’t been left alone? Seeing our babies so heartbroken everyday?” Seonghwa can’t keep his voice steady anymore, almost at the point of breaking down. He takes a breath, pausing to collect himself. He decides to let this be an opportunity to let Hongjoong say whatever he wants.

“I’m sorry.” He doesn’t know what else to say. No amount of words could be enough to express how guilty he felt in that moment. 

“You don’t get to be sorry. Not after leaving them alone for so long.”

“I know, Hwa. Everytime I’m in my studio, you and the boys are the only motivation that keeps me going. I know that might not mean much, but I’m really trying my best Hwa. I just want to be the best boyfriend to you, the best leader and appa to our members, and for me that means working enough so all of us can have a successful comeback. I promise, I swear on everything that from now on I’ll do my best to be there for all of you as well.” 

Seonghwa knows Hongjoong truly means well. He has a heart of gold, but it sometimes led to him doing too much for other people, even if he didn’t realize it. 

“I won’t believe it until I see it, Joong. I need to see you make an effort for our boys.” 

“And I promise, I will. In fact I’ll spend the rest of the week with you guys. We can do whatever they want, it’s on me.” 

Seonghwa smiles to himself softly, glad he finally got through to him. “Okay Joong. Let’s go to bed, you need to sleep.”

“Mhm. Seonghwa?” 

“Hmm?” 

“Thank you for taking care of them whenever I’m not here. It means so much to all of us. I love you so much.” 

“I love you too, Joong.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Appa! Appa’s here!” Wooyoung screams, loud enough to get the other boys out of bed.

Hongjoong almost falls over with the weight of six boys tripping over each other to give him a hug. “Oh, I missed you so much my angels.” Hongjoong does his best to hug them all one by one and give them all kisses. 

Seonghwa fondly watches the scene from afar, content with seeing his littles so happy for the first time in what felt like forever. They all cheerfully talk over each other, the littles updating Hongjoong with everything he missed out on - they all got a new stuffie of their choice, courtesy of Seonghwa, they went on a shopping trip, they even went to an amusement park together. Hongjoong isn’t sure why it takes their recap to realise just how much Seonghwa does for them.

But finally, their family was reunited, and that was all any of them needed to be happy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, leave requests in the comments :)


	9. sangie's birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's yeosang's birthday!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a very late yeosang birthday chapter lol. sorry if it's not that great, i've had a ton of stuff to do recently so this was a bit rushed ://

The members are all huddled in front of the door of Yeosang’s room. Hongjoong shushes them while Seonghwa is busy fiddling with the candles of the small cake that they had gotten for him. 

When everyone’s finally quiet Hongjoong mouths, “3, 2, 1”.

He opens the door, and they all yell, “Happy Birthday Yeosang!” 

And oh, Yeosang starts crying. He’s crying, and crying and doesn’t stop, his body wracked with sobs as he brings his sleeve up to wipe his tears.

Hongjoong rushes to him before Seonghwa can, embracing the younger and stroking the back of his hair as he buries his head into Hongjoong’s neck, still sobbing. He looks at the other members, as though telling them to leave. They all nod in understanding and file out, except for Seonghwa who puts the cake on the bedside table and sits next to the pair on the bed.

“I’m sorry Yeosang… Did we scare you?” Hongjoong says softly. Yeosang nods and moves his head away from Hongjoong’s chest, sucking his thumb.

“W-Why everyone yell at Sangie? Sangie bad?” Neither of them realised he had regressed, they assumed he was crying for some other reason. 

“No sweetheart, Sangie is the bestest boy! We’re sorry for yelling at you, but it’s Sangie’s birthday today!”

The little tilts his head curiously. “Birf’ay?”

“Yes! Sangie gets presents today because he’s a big boy!” Hongjoong says excitedly. Yeosang shakes his head. “Sangie no big! Sangie small!” 

The couple aren’t sure how to explain the concept of birthdays to him, but luckily he interrupts before they can respond. “Pwesents?” 

“Yes, prince! Now, how about we go to the living room and you can open everybody’s presents?” Yeosang nods and claps excitedly, any hint of tears gone now. Seonghwa picks him up and carries him to the living room, where the rest of the members are sitting around a table of presents.

“Is he okay?” Yunho says, quiet enough so only Seonghwa can hear him. He nods.

“Sangie’s excited to open his presents, isn’t he?” Yeosang hops down from Seonghwa’s arms, wobbling over to the table and plopping down ungracefully in front of it. He nods, “Pwesents! Pwesents!” 

Hongjoong laughs. “How about we open the biggest one first?” Yeosang nods, struggling to hold the large box wrapped in bright blue paper with a bow on top. After unsuccessfully trying to open the box, he hands it to Seonghwa who opens it for him. He unveils a heavy box with an image of a drone, the rest of the boys gasping exaggeratedly in excitement.

Yeosang curiously tilts his head. “Whas’ that?” 

Ah of course, little Yeosang didn’t like drones.

“Ah, don’t worry about that now love. You can use it when you grow into a big boy!” Seonghwa says. Yeosang’s already occupied with grabbing the nearest present while Hongjoong sneakily puts all the presents that would confuse the little out of sight.

Yeosang lets out an adorable squeal when he unwraps his next present. “Appa, look! S’uffie!” The boy is beaming, hugging a soft, peach and mint coloured dinosaur. “Ah, that’s papa’s present!” Seonghwa smiles, pleased with how much Yeosang likes it. He noticed Yeosang eyeing it when they went shopping the other day, and figured it would make a good birthday gift for the little. “Thank you papa!” Yeosang keeps the stuffie in his arm as he continues opening his presents.

By the time they’re done, the living room is a mess, an assortment of multicoloured wrapping paper littered everywhere. Yeosang is giggling with joy at all the new presents he’s received - the boy is almost drowning in the amount of new stuffies he got. Seonghwa retrieves the cake from earlier, lighting the candles and presenting it in front of the little. They all sing happy birthday in unison, the little still confused but cheerful anyway in his cute little crown shaped party hat. 

“Blow out the candles and make a wish Sangie!” Hongjoong says.

Yeosang does his best to puff out enough breath to blow out the candles, but huffs and gives up after three attempts. “Appa help, please.” He says. Hongjoong leans over to blow out the candles with Yeosang, the room filled with the sound of everyone clapping.

“What did you wish for, Sangie?” Mingi says curiously.

“Yah! He can’t tell us or it won’t come true!” San shakes his head.

“Sangie wish for more s’uffies, and appa come home more!” The little beams, telling everyone his wishes before anyone could stop him.

Hongjoong kisses Yeosang’s cheek, smiling at the little. “Well lucky for you, both of those things will come true.” 

The rest of the day is spent with the boys having a Disney marathon, per Yeosang’s request. Hongjoong realises just how much he’s been missing out on, knowing he had to come home more often to spend this precious time with his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, feel free to request! sorry if i'm a bit slow getting them done, i'm in an assessment block right now ;(


	10. seonghwa falls asleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hongjoong isn't home, leaving seonghwa to take care of the littles. what are they supposed to do when seonghwa faints?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> request for @hwanwoong's height (love ur name lol) and @NaNa anon! i hope you guys like it :)

Seonghwa’s head had been pounding and ringing all day. Even after taking several different brands of tablets, the pain in his head didn’t go away. Normally he would take a nap, but he knew he had too much responsibility today to take a break.

With the boys having to post regular content for their Atiny, Hongjoong was hard at work in the studio producing his next song for his By.Hongjoong series. As a result, Seonghwa was home looking after the littles, trying to capture sounds for his ASMR videos every now and then.

“Appa, Minnie hungy!” Mingi says, followed by a loud growling stomach. The other littles laugh at him, occupied with their own toys.

“Okay sweetheart, I’ll make lunch for everyone.” Seonghwa says. The intermittent yells of the littles weren't helping his increasing headache. He decided he could finally get some sort of break while making lunch in the kitchen, away from all the noise in the living room. Seonghwa gets up from his place on the sofa, making his way to the kitchen.

He wasn’t sure when everything went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Papa fall!” The littles all draw their attention to where San is pointing, where Seonghwa lays on the floor, seemingly unconscious. They all make their way over to him and lean over him curiously, not entirely sure what to do. They all look at Yunho expectantly. Yunho was always the go-to person among the littles, usually being in the oldest headspace out of all of them. He was like their unofficial official leader.

“P-Papa okay?” Yeosang says, poking Seonghwa’s shoulder. He looks ready to cry at any moment, scared to see his papa in this state. Wooyoung wraps his arms around Yeosang, attempting to distract him with a stuffie, which Yunho is silently thankful for. 

Yunho doesn’t say anything, and instead goes back to the living room, where Seonghwa’s phone was left playing a cartoon for the littles. The littles watch him curiously as he picks up the phone and seems to go to another app, bringing the phone to his ear. They all make their way to where Yunho is seated on the floor, the phone letting out a _ring ring_ as Yunho puts it on speaker.

“Hey babe, is everything okay?” Hongjoong’s voice says from the phone.

Mingi snatches the phone from Yunho and practically yells into the speaker, “P-Papa sleep!”, his voice trembling.

“Minnie is that you? Is everything okay? Papa’s sleeping?” Hongjoong questions repeatedly, his voice filled with worry. Maybe one of the members was big and Seonghwa went to bed and left the littles in their care? Maybe Mingi was upset that Seonghwa had gone to bed? But then why did he have Seonghwa’s phone?

“P-Papa fall and then sleep!” Wooyoung chimes in.

“Papa fell?” Hongjoong says with desperation, trying his best to figure out what they were trying to tell him.

Yunho takes the phone back from Mingi, knowing he could probably explain the best out of all of them. “Papa went to make Minnie food then he fell and um, unco- um… uncons- ugh, fell and slept on the floor an’ won’t wake up!” Yunho struggles to think of that big word used for what happened to Seonghwa. 

“Hwa is unconscious?” Hongjoong almost yells, making the littles wince.

“Yes!” Yunho says in victory.

“Okay loves, I’m on my way home right now.” Hongjoong says as calmly as he possibly can, trying not to stress out the littles more than they already were. They hear frantic shuffling on the other end and the sound of a door opening, knowing Hongjoong was probably tripping over air to get home as soon as possible. “Just stay with Papa and tell me if he wakes up, okay?” 

“Appa don’ leave! Stay on phone!” Hongjoong hears Jongho’s tiny voice further away from the speaker.

“It’s okay darling, I’m not hanging up.” Hongjoong says, sounding out of breath as though he was running a marathon. They figured he’d be at least five minutes away if he was running, which clearly he was. Hongjoong stays on the line with them, trying his best to distract them as much as he could while with the air was knocked out of his lungs. He tries asking about what they did during the day, what they ate, even asking how their stuffies were, but the littles were still upset and distracted.

Finally, he bursts through the door, taking a moment to catch his breath even while the littles are greeting him and crushing the life out of him with their hugs. Hongjoong uses the last bit of energy he has left to stumble over to Seonghwa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seonghwa finally stirs awake. The first thing he notices is the warmth he’s surrounded by. He’s layered with a mountain of blankets, and something cool on his forehead. When he opens his eyes, he sees his lovely boyfriend next to him, his mouth parted as though in shock.

“Hwa, are you okay?” He asks softly, though still panicked.

Seonghwa groans as he lifts himself up in a sitting position, wrapping his arms around Hongjoong and burying his head into his chest. Though his headache has numbed, it’s still there. “Thank you, Joong. For taking care of me.” 

Hongjoong shakes his head, lifting a hand up to stroke Seonghwa’s soft black hair, gently massaging his scalp. “Don’t thank me. Seeing what you go through for our boys makes me feel like I don’t appreciate you enough. I know taking care of them isn’t easy alone, so I really don’t know how you do it almost everyday. I really appreciate it, Hwa.” 

Seonghwa hums softly, knowing he can’t disagree or be modest about it. Taking care of the littles definitely wasn’t an easy feat, but he wouldn’t give it up for anything.

“Where are the kids?” Seonghwa asks.

“They’re all taking a nap. They’ve had a stressful day.” Hongjoong ponders back to what happened when he put Mingi down for his nap.

-

_“Appa?” Mingi looks up at Hongjoong with puppy eyes as he tucks him in, safely tucking Mingi’s favourite giraffe stuffie into his arm._

_“Yes, angel?”_

_“U-Um… Papa sleep Minnie’s fault? Minnie ask papa for food, then papa fall and sleep...” The little pouts. It didn’t occur to Hongjoong that Mingi might have been blaming himself for Seonghwa’s fainting spell._

_“No, of course not angel. Papa has just been working a bit too much lately, so he needed to take a break and get some rest. It’s not Minnie’s fault, okay?” Mingi nods, seemingly a bit less dejected now._

_“I love you, my prettiest prince.” Hongjoong kisses his forehead before turning off the light and switching on Mingi's nightlight._

_“Love you too, Appa!”_

-

After a short pause Hongjoong asks, “Are you feeling better?” 

“Much better now that I’m with you.” Seonghwa says teasingly.

“God you’re so cheesy, it’s disgusting.” 

“You like it!”

“...Maybe, just a little bit.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i watched those videos of kids calling 911 as a reference for this lol. i'm sad now.
> 
> comments and kudos are appreciated <3 feel free to request!


	11. mingi and yunho's cuddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mingi wants to cuddle with his appa and papa in the middle of the night, but they don't seem to have room in the bed for him since someone's already there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> request for @mytinyrosestay ! i'm sorry this took a while, but i hope you like it!

Hongjoong wouldn't trade moments like this for anything in the world. Cuddling in the warmth of his boyfriend's arms while getting his hair stroked was all either of them needed after a long day of practice and comeback preparations. Seonghwa's soft breaths and natural comforting scent was all Hongjoong needed to slowly drift off to sleep. 

"Appa?" A small voice comes from the doorway. 

But of course, they both secretly know they can't have time alone together for too long. 

Yunho stands at the door, holding his favorite stuffed bear plushie with a red ribbon around its neck. He sucks on his thumb, which he knew Seonghwa would probably scold him for. 

"Can't sleep, sweetheart?" Hongjoong asks softly. Though he was oh so close to falling asleep, the little was his first priority as of now. 

Yunho nods. "Can I sleep with appa and papa, please?" 

Hongjoong nods. The couple scoot over to make space for Yunho in the bed. The three are now all in a spooning position, Hongjoong with his arms around Yunho and Seonghwa with his arms around Hongjoong. 

"Better?" Yunho nods. 

"Thanks appa. Love you." 

"Love you too, angel. Sleep well." The three fall asleep in the comfort of each other's embrace. 

═══════☆═══════

Hongjoong feels something poking at his shoulder, jerking awake when he feels it poking harder the more he ignores it. He grumbles in complaint and rubs his eyes, squinting to see a familiar shade of freshly dyed blonde hair. 

"Mingi?" 

"M-Minnie no sleep." The little says quietly. 

Hongjoong processes it slowly in his sleep sunken mind, but his fatherly instincts still jump out. His eye catches on their digital alarm clock, which reads 2:46am.  _ Jesus Christ.  _

"Oh, my poor baby can't fall asleep?" Hongjoong lets out a yawn, petting Mingi's hair comfortingly. The younger boy shakes his head. 

"Wan' cuddle with appa and papa." He says. 

Hongjoong realizes the predicament - there's no space in the bed to fit all four of them. 

"How about we go back to your room Minnie, and appa will cuddle with you there?" Hongjoong starts to get up, until Mingi whines in protest. 

"No, Minnie wan' cuddle with both appa an' papa!" He huffs. Hongjoong puts a finger on his lips, reminding the little to be quiet. Yunho stirs slightly and lets out a small whine, panicking Hongjoong. 

Yunho opens his eyes slowly, confused as to why Mingi was there. He rubs his eyes, as though to make sure they're not playing tricks on him. Yunho buries his head into Hongjoong's collar and whines softly, upset at being woken up after finally being able to fall asleep. 

“Shh, it’s okay sweetheart. Go back to sleep, little angel.” Hongjoong whispers soothingly, stroking Yunho’s soft baby pink hair. The last thing he needed was Seonghwa waking up and scolding all of them.

"Yunnie wakey? Yunnie, go 'way! Minnie turn to sleep with Appa and papa!" Mingi shrieks out. Hongjoong and Yunho both cringe at the volume. It upsets Yunho more, who’s almost on the verge of tears. Hongjoong's amazed that they haven't woken up Seonghwa yet. 

"Minnie, please sweetheart, be quiet. It's night night time, and that means quiet time. You don't want to wake up papa, do you?" He says softly and calmly. If this were happening at any other time of the day, he probably would have scolded Mingi and given him a timeout. Mingi shakes his head, pouting guiltily. "And say sorry to Yunnie. That was very mean and you woke him up, now he's upset." 

"B-But Yunnie take Minnie's place!" He complains. 

Hongjoong gives him the look. The warning look that would make any little do exactly as he said and make them fear for what would happen if they didn’t listen to him.

“‘M sorry Yunnie.” Mingi huffs. “Sorry for being a meanie and waking Yunnie up.” He mumbles. 

Yunho slips back into the covers next to Seonghwa, looking at Hongjoong expectantly. 

“Is okay.” He says sleepily as Hongjoong tucks him in. His eyes start to droop as he sucks on the paci Hongjoong presses to his lips. 

“Come on Minnie, let’s go cuddle in your room, okay?” 

Mingi nods, giving Hongjoong his gummy, toothy eye smile. It’s enough to make Hongjoong’s heart fill with joy, even at three in the morning.

“We love you, puppy. Sleep well.” Hongjoong kisses Yunho’s forehead before allowing himself to be led to Mingi’s room.

Mingi’s snoring in seconds when he’s finally comfortably cuddled up with his appa. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, feel free to request!


	12. jongho's cooties (ft. woo)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wooyoung tells jongho about cooties

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> request from one of my favourite Ateez little space writers, @BabieJongho ! this was a lot of fun to write, i hope you like it!

Jongho loved,  _ loved  _ kisses and cuddles while he was little. It made him feel loved and all warm and fuzzy inside. It was quite ironic considering he would much rather cut off his own arm than be kissed by his hyungs when he wasn't little.

Yunho, Jongho and Wooyoung were the three littles who decided to come out and play today. They were all working on a puzzle together, which as expected, ended up chaotic. Wooyoung ended up getting frustrated by how long it was taking, so he decided to play on his own with his train set. This left Jongho and Yunho to work on the puzzle by themselves.

At this point Jongho is frustrated too. He huffs and pouts at Yunho. "Puzzle hard!" He complains. 

"We can do it!" Yunho exclaims. "2ho fighting!" Yunho leans forward to press a kiss to Jongho's nose. Jongho giggles, craving that fuzzy feeling again.

"Yunnie-hyungie?"

"Hmm?"

"U-Um..." It felt embarrassing to ask for another kiss, so he just pointed to his nose, where Yunho had kissed him, then to his cheek. Yunho tilts his head in confusion.

"U-Um, kiss please." He says, his cheeks red now. Yunho gives him a happy smile and pulls Jongho into an embrace, smothering his face with kisses. The younger little can't stop giggling at the tickling feeling on his cheeks.

They hear an "Eww!" from the corner of the room. They both turn to Wooyoung who's watching the scene with his nose scrunched in disgust.

"Woo wan' kisses too?" Jongho asks politely. Wooyoung stubbornly shakes his head.

"Thas' yucky! Jjongie's gonna get cooties now!" Wooyoung snickers.

"Cuties?" Yunho asks curiously. The two Ho brothers have no idea what he's talking about.

"No! Cooties! Yucky germs! Now Jjongie’s gonna get icky!" Jongho pulls away from Yunho in alarm, his eyebrows furrowed in worry. He looks up at Yunho as though to confirm if it's true or not.

"B-But Yunho not icky!" Jongho says.

Wooyoung shrugs, going back to his train set. "Everyone has cooties. Kisses are gross!" He says, sticking his tongue out.

Jongho doesn't know what to do with this new information.

═══════☆═══════

"Goodnight sweetheart, Appa loves you all the way to the moon and back." Hongjoong makes sure Jongho has everything he needs to go to sleep peacefully. He clicks his night light on, gives him his Alpaca stuffie and presses a pacifier to his lips. 

Of course, there was one more thing.

Hongjoong leans over to give Jongho his goodnight kiss. He's taken aback when the little whines in complaint and dodges it. Was he big again? Jongho only stubbornly refused kisses when he was out of his little space.

“Is my Jjongie big now?” 

Jongho shakes his head, letting his paci fall out of his mouth. “Wooyoungie say that Jjongie will get cuties if I kiss!” 

“Cuties?” Hongjoong tilts his head curiously. “You mean cooties?” 

Jongho nods with wide eyes. “J-Jongie don’ wan cooties! Jongie don’ wanna be icky!” He says sadly, pouting and pulling the blankets up over his head. Hongjoong knows he’s going to have to lecture Wooyoung for scaring the youngest.

“Sweetheart, you won’t get cooties if I kiss you. Cooties aren’t even real my baby boy.” Hongjoong says softly, attempting to pull the covers down to see Jongho’s face. Even when he was little, he still had a strong grip. He feels the movement of Jongho shaking his head under the covers. 

“Come on, let appa give you your goodnight kiss.”

“N-No!” 

Hongjoong sighs in defeat. “Okay, fine. But I’ll be awake whenever you want to come get them.” He says teasingly. “Goodnight pumpkin, I love you.”

Both of them feel as though something’s missing when Jongho falls asleep without a goodnight kiss.

═══════☆═══════

This continued on the next morning as well. Seonghwa shared the same shocked expression as Hongjoong from the night before when Jongho refused to be kissed or cuddled, and even yelled “no, go ‘way!”

“What happened to him? Do littles go through puberty or something?” Seonghwa starts panicking.

“No, love.” Hongjoong chuckles. “Wooyoungie told him about cooties so now he’s too scared to even touch anybody.” 

Seonghwa pouts. “Well I’m not going through the day without cuddling our baby boy.”

═══════☆═══════

“Wooyoungie has something he wants to tell you, sweetheart.” Seonghwa says.

Jongho had been down in the dumps all day, too scared to be kissed or even hugged by anybody in the group in fear that he’d contract the notorious “cooties”. He occupied himself with his action figures, playing by himself in the living room.

“Cooties aren’t real.” Wooyoung says, somewhat dejected, holding onto Seonghwa’s hand. “Woo lied to scare Jjongie an’ ‘m sorry.” He basically repeats what Hongjoong told him to say earlier when he scolded him. 

Jongho looks up at them with hopeful dewy eyes. “R-Really? Not real?” 

Wooyoung nods. Jongho smiles at both of them and jumps up to smother them both in an embrace. He kisses Seonghwa’s cheek, then Wooyoung’s.

“Love you appa, papa, Wooyoungie!” He says happily. It’s the happiest Seonghwa and Hongjoong have seen him since he found out about “cooties”. 

“Love you too, darling. Now you better make up for all the kisses you didn’t give me.” Seonghwa says, kissing the boy on the forehead.


	13. sangie's fansign

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the boys head off to a fansign, but yeosang slips into little space while they're in the car

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> requests from @ceereads and @SatanUiAgi. your requests were similar so i combined them into one story, i hope you like it!
> 
> i'm sorry sangie cries so much in this series, he's just a sensitive babie :c

There hadn’t been this much excitement in the dorms for a long time now. The boys were finally having their first fanmeet after not seeing their fans for what felt like forever. They couldn’t get dressed any quicker as they all bustled into their manager’s van. They had an hour’s drive to get over the nervous anticipation. The boys conversed avidly - everyone was in high spirits, and they couldn’t be happier.

“I’m so excited!” Wooyoung yells out. His statement is met with cheers of agreement.

“Sangie vewy excited too!” A familiar lisp was heard in the very back corner seat of the van. "Atiny gonna give Sangie lots of s'uffies!" 

Seven pairs of eyes turned to look at the innocent looking boy who was grinning happily. 

Hongjoong, who’s sitting next to him, isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do. They had dealt with situations like this before, when the boys slipped in their headspace while they were in public. But this was different. They were going to be talking to at least a hundred people, their own fans - Yeosang couldn't be little right now. 

"Sangie, let's play a game." Hongjoong says excitedly. 

"Game! Game! Sangie wanna play!" Yeosang bounces happily in his seat. Hongjoong couldn't explain how bad he felt for having to ease the boy out of his little space, but he didn't want anything going wrong at the fansign. 

"It's called "Pretend to be big"". Yeosang tilts his head curiously. "Whoever can pretend to be big all day gets ice cream with rainbow sprinkles at the end of the day!" 

Yeosang pouts. "Doesn' sound fun appa." 

The members grew increasingly on edge as they got closer to the venue. Yeosang was still little, giggling at something supposedly hilarious that he mumbled to himself. Normally they'd play a cartoon or something for the boy, but they didn't want him regressing further into his little space. Hongjoong knew he had to pull out the big guns. 

"How about if Sangie plays and wins, Appa will get you a new stuffie as well? And extra TV time?" 

That does the trick. Yeosang squeals, "I'll play, I'll play!" 

Hongjoong sighs a breath of relief. Now they just had to get through the rest of the fansign. 

═══════☆═══════

"Sannie lookie! Sangie got so many new s'uffies!" Yeosang whispers cheerfully to San who's seated next to him at the long table. He shows off his new array of new stuffies that are comfortably in his arms. His appa told him not to be too loud today and to pretend to be big when he was with Atiny, and because he was a very good boy, he listened. 

San gives him an adoring smile and leans in to whisper to him. "Sangie don't forget, you have to pretend to be big!" He says exaggeratedly. Yeosang's eyes widen in realization, as though he just remembered something. He nods. 

“Sangie will be a good boy!” He says. He really,  _ really  _ wanted his ice cream and stuffie from appa.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong kept a close eye on him throughout the event, noticing the familiar way his eyes would light up whenever he got a new stuffie from a fan. Overall he was doing a great job in keeping his little self hidden from view. They knew they’d have to reward him with anything he could possibly want later on - this couldn’t be easy for him. 

After what felt like an eternity to Yeosang, the fansign was over. The boys bowed and bid their final goodbyes to their fans, expressing how much they would miss them. Seonghwa and Hongjoong couldn’t have ushered Yeosang out of there faster. 

“You did so good today, baby boy! Appa and papa are so proud of you!” Hongjoong says, peppering Yeosang’s face in kisses. Though Yeosang would normally be over the moon to be receiving so much praise and affection, something was still bugging him.

“Appa?” 

“Yes, prince?” 

“Why Sangie can’t be little outside?” 

_ Oh.  _ Hongjoong didn’t think he’d have to have this conversation with any of his precious boys while they were little. His heart breaks at the way Yeosang looks up at him sadly. He knows he isn’t imagining the tears that line Yeosang’s glassy eyes. Before Hongjoong can say anything, Yeosang speaks up again.

“S-Sangie weird?” 

Hongjoong kneels down to Yeosang’s level, where he’s sitting cross legged on the floor, making him appear tiny. 

“No, my baby. Sangie isn’t weird at all. Do you think your brothers are weird?” Yeosang shakes his head. “Some people are just meanies and don’t understand that Sangie needs to be little sometimes. But it isn’t your fault my prince, okay?” 

This seems to have cheered up Yeosang. He wipes the tears threatening to spill from his eyes and smothers Hongjoong in a warm hug. He thinks he could forever drown in the comforting scent of his appa - the scent of fresh laundry and cologne that could always lull him to sleep or calm him down when he was upset. 

“Besides, appa and papa and your brothers love you so much, and that’s all that matters.” Hongjoong whispers to him, before kissing the top of his head. Yeosang nods. 

“Sangie loves appa too.” He says, giving his appa that smile he always loved to see.

“Come on sweetheart. Let’s go to the store and get you some ice cream and a new friend to play with.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come talk to me on tumblr @sansseireis ! i'd love to make some new friends here <3
> 
> and as always, feel free to leave requests :)


	14. appa and papa's date (san and yunho)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> san misses his appa and papa while they're on a date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @mytinyrosestay , i hope you like it ! <33
> 
> i’ve had a few angsty requests lately, so take this fluffy chapter before everything gets sad lol :p

With six littles to take care of and usually at least one of them regressing every other day, along with hectic comeback schedules, Seonghwa and Hongjoong knew all too well they’d hardly have any time to go out as a couple.

Yunho noticed this better than anyone else in the group, and naturally felt bad for his two hyungs.

So he came up with a little idea.

The boys had a small rest period for a few hours after their scheduled dance practice for the day, so Yunho decided he’d take it upon himself to let his two hyungs go on a date.

“Yunho, are you sure? What if someone regresses, or what if you need to be little? And also, I don’t want you guys burning the dorm down or anything-” Seonghwa rambles on, thinking up the worst case scenario that could happen in the max 2 hours they were gone. 

“Hyung, it’s _fine_. I promise, I can take care of things here. Now go make out with Hongjoong-hyung or whatever it is you want to do.” Yunho winks suggestively. 

“Yah!” Seonghwa lightly slaps his arm as he chuckles. “But seriously, thank you Yunho. We’ll make it up to you, I promise.” 

“You don’t have to.” He smiles.

═══════☆═══════

Seonghwa didn’t feel as nervous about what would happen at the dorms in their absence anymore. Now that he was with Hongjoong, any of his worries were pushed out of his mind.

“Seriously, we owe Yunho the whole world. I’d give him the whole world, even if for just ten minutes with you.” Seonghwa cringes internally at how cheesy it is, but he truly means it.

Unlike Seonghwa, Hongjoong outwardly expresses how cheesy he found it, sticking his tongue out at the older in disgust. Seonghwa appreciates how stunning his boyfriend looks - his minimal outfit blended with the appearance of the modest local cafe they had gone to. His ring adorned hands looked tiny around the large coffee mug he had ordered. Seonghwa always happened to realize just how much he loved him after not spending a long period of time alone together.

Hongjoong notices his staring and meets his eyes. He quickly looks away in embarrassment, sipping his coffee. “Stop staring.” He mumbles shyly.

“How can I when you’re so stunning?” Seonghwa says, smiling at him. He reaches out to hold Hongjoong’s warm hands. 

Suddenly Hongjoong’s phone lights up and vibrates.

“It’s Yunho.” He says, picking up his phone and answering the phone. “Hello?”

Seonghwa raises an eyebrow as Hongjoong’s expression changes. “Is he okay?” He says. It’s enough to make Seonghwa panic as he grips Hongjoong’s hand tighter. 

“He’s a bit younger right now and he won’t let me feed him anything or put him down for a nap. I tried making a bottle for him but he says he won’t eat unless appa or papa feeds him.” Yunho says over the phone.

“Here, I’ll talk to him, give him the phone.” Hongjoong says.

“I-I miss appa!” Hongjoong hears over the speaker as the voice gets closer to the phone.

“Here, talk to him.” He hears Yunho say.

“A-Appa?” 

“Yes sweetheart, it’s me. What’s got my little Sannie so upset?”

“M-Miss appa and papa!” San whines. He sounds more frustrated than upset. Hongjoong can already picture the small pout on his face. As much as Hongjoong wanted to rush home with Seonghwa and comfort him, he also didn’t want this time alone with his boyfriend to go to waste.

He comes up with an idea

“Sannie, wanna see something cool?” 

“Yeah!” San yells into the phone, his voice does a complete 180. 

“Count to 1000, and when you get to 1000, appa and papa will be home, okay?” 

“Ooh, okay!” San exclaims. _How adorable_ Hongjoong thinks. He secretly knows San won’t be able to count up to 1000 - he’ll either forget the numbers or get distracted by something else.

“Okay sweetheart, can you give the phone to Yunho hyung?” 

“Yep! Love you appa!” San says cheerily.

“Love you too, Sannie. I’ll see you soon.” He hears San starting to count in the background when Yunho picks up the phone again. “Hello?” 

“Keep. Him. Distracted.” Hongjoong says, almost threateningly. “Please. We don’t want him upset again. Just make sure he’s happy and make sure he eats.” 

“Got it hyung, don’t worry, I’ll keep everything under control. Now you can go back to boning Seong-” Hongjoong hangs up the call. 

“What was all of that?” Seonghwa says, his voice more panicky. “Do we need to go home?” He looks ready to get up and leave at any given notice.

“No, it’s okay.” Hongjoong says. “Sannie was just a little upset, but Yunho has it under control.” Seonghwa seems unconvinced and pouts, leaning his cheek against his hand unhappily. 

“Come on.” Hongjoong gets out of his seat.

“Where are we going?” 

“I’m not letting our date be an unhappy one.” Hongjoong says. “Let’s go.”

═══════☆═══════

The couple end up losing track of time and spending the rest of the day at an amusement park. Seonghwa had always expressed that he wanted to go to an amusement park with Hongjoong, but with their schedules and Hongjoong hardly coming home, they never had the time. The day was filled with one winning prizes for the other, cotton candy, and even a cliche kiss on the ferris wheel.

Finally when the sun started to set, they decided they had to head home. They had gotten so wrapped up in the events of the day that the thought of someone waiting for them at home had slipped their minds.

“We’re home!” Hongjoong calls out in the darkness of the living room. He clumsily moves his hand around to find the lightswitch, flipping it on. Hongjoong goes to slump down on the sofa when he’s met with a sight that has his heart melting.

Yunho’s asleep on the sofa with San in his embrace. The latter sucks on a purple pacifier and has a stuffie safely tucked in his arm, his head buried into Yunho’s neck. Hongjoong didn’t want either of them waking up all sore and in the cold, so he gently shakes them awake. San whines in complaint, looking as though he’s ready to burst out crying from being woken up, but his eyes light up when he sees Hongjoong and Seonghwa.

“Appa!” He squeals in excitement around his paci, rubbing the sleepiness away from his eyes

“My precious baby boy,” Hongjoong grins, kissing his forehead. “We missed you so much!” 

San makes a sound of agreement. He was probably too small to say anything other than appa and papa, Hongjoong figures.

“Let’s get you into bed, okay?” San nods sleepily. “Appa.” He says, yawning. “Wanna sleep with appa?” He nods. The pair make their way to San’s shared dorm with Yunho.

Yunho sits upright, pouting. His gaze meets Seonghwa’s. He makes grabby hands towards the older, letting out a small whine.

“Oh, is our Yunnie little?” Seonghwa says, picking him up. Yunho nods. “My precious baby, being big is too hard, isn’t it?” Seonghwa says with his soothing low voice. “You did so well today Yunnie, taking care of your little brother. Papa’s so proud of you.” Yunho smiles up at him proudly, snuggling into his chest. 

“Thanks, papa.” He mumbles. “Sleepy. Wanna sleep with papa.” 

“Okay, love. Let’s get you into bed.” 

Seonghwa and Hongjoong find themselves in San and Yunho’s dorm room, cuddling with them in their respective bunks. Even if they couldn't always spend time alone together, parenting their littles together filled that gap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow!! we’re almost at 200 kudos which is insane to me o; thank you to everyone who leaves comments, requests and kudos, it really means a lot to me <3 i started this series because i find a lot of comfort in writing stuff like this, and i’m really happy that so many people have supported it and continue to request. so again, thank you!


	15. lonely jjongie ii

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho just wants to play, but everyone's tired and busy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the request @BabieJongho, i hope you like it! 💗

Everyone had picked up on how Jongho had barely regressed in the last month - if they had to guess, they’d say he regressed once in the last few weeks. As the youngest and with plenty of pressure as the main vocalist of the group, he often regressed more than the other members. The members brushed it off as the stress of the upcoming comeback. Honestly they hadn’t had the time to regress as much as they’d like to either.

After dance practice for the day, the boys all had their own plans. Though they were all sweaty and tired, they had their own schedules and plans to attend to. Hongjoong would be in his studio, Seonghwa would be filming his next content video, San and Wooyoung were going on a date, and Mingi and Yunho were doing a Vlive. That just left Jongho and his boyfriend Yeosang to go back home. 

Jongho felt exhausted, slumping back against the mirror of the practice room. He had a habit of singing to strengthen his vocals and stamina during dance practice, which often ended up wearing him out. He just wanted to play and cuddle with someone, be taken care of, and not worry about anything. He wanted his appa. 

By the time he’s completely drifted off in his little headspace, everyone has filed out of the room except Yeosang.

“Are you okay, love?” He hears Yeosang say, though it doesn’t completely register in his mind. The only thing he can think of is Hongjoong - he wanted to play with appa in his studio. Jongho shakily gets up and leaves the practice room, leaving an extremely confused Yeosang.

He manages to stumble over to the door of Hongjoong’s studio, knocking twice. The door opens. Hongjoong tilts his head curiously, “Jongho? Is everything okay?"

"Appa play, please?" He says, giving Hongjoong his best puppy eyes. Hongjoong could never, ever, resist their little maknae's puppy eyes. But in this case he had far too much to get done, plus he was too physically exhausted from practice to give him all of his energy. 

"I'm sorry my darling, appa has a lot of work to do." He says disappointedly. Jongho pouts sadly, looking down at the floor.

"O-Oh. Is okay." He says. Hongjoong knows he's heartbroken, but far too sensible to complain or whine about it like the other littles would. 

"I'm sure Yeosangie hyung would love to play with you, my angel. How about you go home with hyung and play with him?" Jongho nods. It wouldn't be the same as playing with his appa, but it would do for the rest of the evening. 

"Good boy." Hongjoong smiles, squishing Jongho's cheeks with his hands and giving him a kiss on the tip of his nose. "Appa loves you so much."

"Love you too." He says. Jongho finds that Yeosang must've already gone back to the dorm without him, as he's not in the practice room or downstairs when he looks around. When he lets Hongjoong know, the older gets one of the staff members to escort him to the dorm. 

When he's inside, he finds that all the lights are off. He whimpers in fear, but musters enough courage to look for the lightswitch and turn the light on by himself. Yeosang is still nowhere in sight, not in the living room or kitchen. He huffs and decides to look in his shared dorm with Wooyoung. 

His heart jumps in joy when he finds Yeosang in his bunk bed, though he seems to be sleeping. Jongho waddles over to the bed, gently prodding Yeosang's shoulder. The older groans in complaint. 

"Mmf, what do you want?" He says, his voice thick with tiredness. He doesn't turn to see who it is. 

Jongho pouts and furrows his brows. "Sangie hyung play with Jjongie please?" 

"Oh, sorry pumpkin, hyung didn't realize it was you." He turns around to face the little. He turns his phone on and fiddles around a bit before handing it to Jongho. On the screen is an hour long cartoon playlist. 

"Sangie-hyung is a bit tired right now and needs a nap nap, so can you be a good boy and watch some cartoons for me? Your other hyungs should be back home soon." Jongho nods. He was a good boy, so he'd listen to what his hyung told him to do. He had a momentary bout of deja vu. 

Yeosang smiles at him and kisses his head before getting back into his comfortable sleeping position. Not wanting to disturb Yeosang with the sounds of his cartoon, Jongho makes himself comfortable in the living room with one of his stuffies. 

═══════☆═══════

Jongho perks up when he hears the front door click open. He makes his way to see Wooyoung and San hand in hand, looking exhausted. 

He embraces them both enthusiastically, earning a worn out "oomf", from both of them. The pair decide they're never going out after dance practice ever again. 

"Jjongie missed you!" He says cheerily. 

Wooyoung rubs his eyes tiredly. He does his best to respond to Jongho but interrupts himself with a yawn. 

"We missed you too, little one." San smiles.

"Will you play with Jjongie?" He asks hopefully. After being rejected twice, the third time was supposed to be a charm. The couple look at each other with the same shared, exhausted expression, as though saying "someone has to break it to him". 

"Sorry, little one. We're both very very tired so we're going to go night night, but we'll play with you in the morning, okay?" 

It seemed Jongho was the only one with any energy left. He's visibly dejected, but accepts it anyway. He gives them a small "night night" as he slumps back on the sofa. 

He wanted nothing but to bawl out of frustration right now - why didn't anybody want to play with him? He figures he may as well go to bed as well if nobody was going to play with him. Jongho doesn't even notice his throat tighten up and a flow of tears beginning to stream from his eyes. 

Before he's about to go to bed, he hears the door open again. One more shot wouldn't hurt, right? 

He makes his way to the door with almost no hope left. It all changes and his eyes light up when he sees who's at the door. 

"Papa!" Jongho squeals, running into the older man's open arms and giving him a bear hug. 

"Hi little angel, why are you awake? It's past your bedtime." Seonghwa chuckles. He wasn't strict about the littles' rules like Hongjoong was, but secretly, enforcing them made him feel more like a parent. 

"O-Oh um," Jongho's cheeks are tinged pink. "Jjongie wanted to play but no one wan' play…" He says. 

"Oh my poor baby." Seonghwa tuts sympathetically, giving him a pout. "Does Jjongie wanna play or go to bed now?" The little's face lights up in pure and utter joy. 

"Play! Play!" He jumps up and down in excitement. Seonghwa chuckles at just how adorable the little is. 

The next half an hour is spent playing with Jongho's action figures, Jongho making up a make believe story and dramatic action scenes while Seonghwa played along with shared excitement. He notices the littles' eyes starting to droop, and his yawns getting more and more frequent. 

"Okay baby boy, I think it's time for bed." Seonghwa says, putting away the action figures in their toy chest. Jongho shakes his head. 

"J-Jongie play more-" He says before yawning. He can't argue any further when Seonghwa picks him up, cradling him. The last thing he remembers is a paci being gently prodded into his mouth, and curling up into the warmth of his papa's chest. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next one is probably going to be a bit longer and angsty ><


	16. left out sangie (ft. woosan)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> after an argument, yeosang feels like san and wooyoung have been excluding him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @MeepMeep12 , this was a lot of fun to write! i hope you like it :)

Yeosang could think of several instances in the past week where the lively pair had excluded him, intentional or not, both in and out of little space.

═══════☆═══════

Hearing the loud yells of “Woo, San, cross!” for the past hour and the littles’ giggles provoked Yeosang’s desire to join the pair in their seemingly incredible playtime adventures. He waddles over to the playmat in the living room where the littles are occupied with putting together a toy train set. “Choo, choo!” Wooyoung yells before the wooden toy train is even on the tracks. 

“Sangie play with Woo and Sannie too please?” Yeosang asks quietly, fiddling with his fingers. 

The pair turn to look at each other with curious eyes. They lean in closely and start avidly whispering to each other, apparently discussing Yeosang’s inquiry. Yeosang hears San say, “but what if Sangie messes choo choo up!”, pouting sadly. He sucks in a breath while waiting for their final verdict. 

“Okay.” Wooyoung says, smiling at him. Yeosang comfortably seats himself next to the pair, starting with fascination as Wooyoung shows him how to put together the train tracks.

Merely five minutes later, Yeosang is struggling to put the tracks together. He doesn’t want to bother Wooyoung and San, who seem to be in their own world together, by asking them how to do it again. So he attempts to figure out how to do it by himself, his tongue sticking out adorably at the corner of his mouth as he attempts to jam the two pieces of the toy tracks together. A  _ snap  _ is heard.

“Sangie broke choo choo! I told you, he ruin everything!” San says loudly to Wooyoung.

“S-Sangie didn’ mean to, ‘m sorry!” Yeosang starts to cry, tears spilling from his eyes to his cheeks.

Wooyoung huffs, “Go ‘way Sangie, go play with someone else.” 

Yeosang can’t find it in himself to get up, but he forces himself to. He couldn’t stay with Wooyoung and San who were already mad at him for messing up what they had been spending so much time on. He finds himself stumbling to appa and papa’s room, who had been forced back to their dorm room since Wooyoung and San said they were, “big boys who didn’t need to be watched”. 

They both stare at him in shock and concern, questioning what could’ve gone wrong in the ten minutes Yeosang spent with Wooyoung and San. The couple shush him softly and calm him down with their reassuring words. When he’s finally calmed down a little bit, Seonghwa asks, “What’s got our prince so upset?” Sure, Yeosang cried a lot, but he hardly ever cried for no reason.

“S-Sangie wan’ play choo choo with Sannie and Woo, b-but then…” He breaks down in sobs again.

“Shh, it’s okay darling, don’t worry about it. I think baby boy needs a nap, okay?” 

When Yeosang falls asleep soundly, Hongjoong goes to question the two littles in the living room for answers. Of course, they changed the story in their favour, but Hongjoong sees right through it. Their TV privileges are suspended for the week, and naturally they blame Yeosang for it.

Whenever he entered the room while they were all little, they’d glare at him and start whispering to each other. As a result, Yeosang avoided them and instead opted to play with the rest of the members, who were unaware of what was going on and brushed it off as Wooyoung and San being joined to the hip as usual.

═══════☆═══════

Their problems when they were little hardly ever carried over to when the members weren’t little - arguing over a broken toy seemed trivial when they were big. Despite this, Yeosang still felt that nagging voice at the back of his mind that had him feeling excluded from the pair, and it wasn’t even just the train incident.

The members were attending their weekly contemporary dance lessons, when the instructor told them to pair up for the next choreo they would be doing. Yeosang turns to go to Wooyoung, but stops himself when he sees that Wooyoung, to no surprise, is making his way towards San.  _ It’s fine, _ Yeosang brushes it off.  _ They’re dating, of course they’re going to pair together _ , he thinks as he walks over to Jongho. 

He figures he would have to make an attempt to spend time with the pair. After the lesson is over, he confronts the two. “Hey, want to get something to eat?”

“Oh, Sannie and I were going to go out on a date.” Wooyoung says. “But it’s fine, we can-”

“No, don’t worry about it.” Yeosang shakes his head. “Enjoy your date.” He says, smiling at the two then leaving the practice room. Of course he said it was fine, but this further spurred the doubts in the back of his mind.

Jongho catches up to him, running up to Yeosang from behind. “Are you okay, Yeo?” He asks.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” 

“I don’t know, you and Wooyoung and San seem to have drifted. I thought maybe something might have happened.” 

Yeosang shakes his head. “It’s fine. They’re a couple so obviously they’re going to spend more time together than with me.” 

“But Sang, even when you’re little-” 

“No, it’s fine.” Yeosang reinforces. He didn’t want to put forward the idea that his relationship with the couple was rocky just because they were extremely close. He wasn’t jealous or anything - Yeosang is completely content with believing everything is fine. Jongho picks up on it and doesn’t press the matter further.

═══════☆═══════

In the following weeks, Yeosang had barely regressed. The train incident and awkwardness around Wooyoung and San while little had him nervous to regress - at this point instead of stress relief, regressing just gave him more to worry about. He couldn’t help but repeat San’s words in his head.

_ I told you, he ruins everything. _

Was that really how they felt about him? Did they not like him when he was little? Or worse, what if they just didn’t want to be around him in general? Yeosang naturally assumes the worst case scenario and ends up bawling out his frustrations. He didn’t want to open up about this to anyone, so this was the best way he could vent. He doesn’t even notice that someone knocks on the door of his room before entering.

“Yeosang?” They embrace him and comfortingly cradle him, wiping his tears away as his body is wracked with sobs.

Yeosang’s vision is blurry with tears, but he makes out Wooyoung’s round face and long dark hair.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you little?” 

“D-Don’ wanna be little!” Yeosang sniffles out.

“Sangie, it’s okay. You can be little, I promise, it’s okay.” Wooyoung softly runs his fingers through his hair.

“B-But if Sangie little th-then Woo and Sannie will be mean a-an’ no play with Sangie!” He sobs.

Wooyoung didn’t realise their argument had that much of an impact on Yeosang. He assumed he would’ve gotten over it when they were big and not take it to heart. He was definitely aware that he and San could be brats when they were little and end up ganging up on the other members, but it never had its repercussions except for the occasional punishment.

“I’m sorry.” Wooyoung says, his voice breaking. His heart shattered with the guilt of practically being the reason that Yeosang didn’t want to regress. “Woo is so sorry Sangie, he’s a dummy for being such a meanie. Sangie is such a good boy, and Woo and Sannie love him so much. We’ll play with you whenever you want, okay?” 

“R-Really?” Yeosang looks up at him hopefully with possibly the cutest expression Wooyoung has ever seen on him - though his eyes are wet and his cheeks are red, he resembles a puppy.

“Of course, little prince.” He smiles at him softly. “Does Sangie wanna go play with the choo choo train?” Yeosang nods shyly.

San is in the living room where the train set is already set up. 

“Sangie, are you okay?” He asks worriedly, noticing that the boy had definitely been crying. Yeosang nods and hugs San. “Wuv you Sannie. Lots n’ lots.” 

Though San is confused at the random outburst of love, he reciprocates. “I love you too, Yeosangie.” 

While Yeosang is occupying himself with the train set (and not breaking anything under San’s close watch), Wooyoung quietly explains the predicament to San. San knew they’d both have to apologize to Yeosang when they were all little again. In the meantime, the couple swarms Yeosang with kisses and cuddles while he’s happily playing with the train set. They even let him have as much ice cream as he wants, which they knew Hongjoong would scold them for later, but to them, anything would be worth seeing Yeosang’s smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m going to be aiming for daily updates for this series from now on, so keep the requests coming! :)


	17. baby sangie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> little yeosang is left in wooyoung and san's care. he regresses younger than usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @atzys, i hope you like it!
> 
> this is a continuation of the last chapter :)

After their small falling out and making up, Wooyoung, San and Yeosang’s relationship was stronger than ever. Wooyoung and San made sure to spend more time with Yeosang while he was little, and spoil him with all the praise, cuddles and kisses they could possibly give him.

Hongjoong had been proud that the three could settle their differences all by themselves without him and Seonghwa having to intervene. He also started to trust the couple to take care of little Yeosang more than he usually would. The two had been begging Hongjoong to let them take care of Yeosang without being supervised by him for weeks. Eventually, he finally trusted them enough to let them stay home alone with Yeosang while he was little. The rest of the members had their own schedules to attend to, which left San, Wooyoung and a little Yeosang at the dorms.

“Make sure he’s in bed by 9pm, and don’t let him watch any TV before bed or he’ll be restless and won’t go to sleep, and also-” 

“Hyung, we’ll be  _ fine _ . Don’t you trust us?” San interrupts him with fake hurt.

Hongjoong sighs. “I do, it’s just…” He pauses, seemingly looking for the right words. “Sangie is sensitive. One slip up and he could be upset for the rest of the day.” 

“We’ll be fine, he loves us, plus he seems to be a bit older today.” San says. Yeosang always regressed younger than the other members, usually two or three years old, but today they’d guess he was about six. He didn’t whine in complaint when they left him to play in the living room while they had their “adult conversation”, which was a good sign.

“Okay, call me if anything happens.” Hongjoong says. The two bid him farewell, then go back to the living room where Yeosang was playing with a remote control car, giggling excitedly.

“Whatcha got there, Sangie?” Wooyoung asks. 

“Papa got me a remote car!” He smiles up at them. San can’t help but squish his cheeks together, chuckling as Yeosang’s lips form an adorable pout. Yeosang doesn’t complain, still zooming his car around the living room.

“You’re so adorable, Sangie!” San says exaggeratedly, sickeningly sweet.

“Th-Thanks Sannie hyung”. He says shyly, his cheeks tinged pink. He doesn’t meet San’s gaze, still focusing on his car with his cheeks squished.

Wooyoung comes up from behind and kisses Yeosang’s fluffy blonde head. “Does our prince need anything?” 

“Nuh uh, Sangie is okay.” He says, shaking his head. They notice that his lisp is back and he’s talking in the third person again, the way he does when he’s in a younger headspace. He puts down the controller for the car, now disinterested in it. “Sannie and Woo wanna play stuffies with Sangie?” 

“Of course, prince!” Yeosang gives Wooyoung and San an elephant and bear stuffie, while clutching onto his own bunny stuffie. He starts babbling away a make believe story. They’re not quite sure of what he’s saying, so they just play along with their stuffies, leaving a giggling Yeosang. 

As the night goes on, Yeosang gets quieter, though remains just as enthusiastic while playing with the stuffies. He communicates in noises rather than words, making it difficult for Wooyoung and San to figure out if he needs or wants anything. They hear his stomach rumble. 

“Is Sangie hungry?” Wooyoung asks. He nods, rubbing his tummy. “Okay, hyung will go make you a bottle.” He gets up to go to the kitchen. Yeosang suddenly whines, shaking his head and making grabby hands towards Wooyoung. “You want me to stay?” Yeosang nods. Wooyoung’s heart melts at how adorable Yeosang is like this. San goes to make the bottle instead while Wooyoung picks up Yeosang and comfortably relocates to the sofa.

“How old is Sangie now?” Wooyoung asks the boy, gently cradling him in his arms. Yeosang looks up at him with curious eyes and seems to ponder for a moment, before shaking his head and shrugging. He must be really,  _ really _ little, Wooyoung figures. 

“It’s okay, Sangie.” He says. “Because either way, you’re my little baby.” Yeosang giggles as Wooyoung teasingly presses the tip of his nose. 

San returns with a warm bottle filled with milk, handing it to Wooyoung. He gently slips the nipple of the bottle between Yeosang’s lips, who sucks on it happily. When the bottle is half done, Yeosang starts fussing and pushes it away.

“Come on sweetheart, you should finish your bottle.” San says. Yeosang shakes his head and whines in protest, refusing Wooyoung’s attempts to get the bottle near his mouth.

“It’s okay, Sangie. But it’s late now, so it’s time for Sangie to go night night.” Yeosang nods, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

San picks Yeosang up, making sure he’s burped before carrying him to his room. When they tuck him into bed, Yeosang doesn’t seem comfortable at all. His eyebrows are furrowed and he pouts sadly with his arms crossed

“Are you okay, Sangie?” San asks. He shakes his head, then wraps his arms around himself.

“Does Sangie wanna be cuddled?” He shakes his head again, then makes another cuddling motion, but with one arm.

“Oh! Sangie needs a stuffie?” Wooyoung asks. Yeosang nods happily, then sucks on his thumb.

“Oh, and your paci?” He nods. When both items are brought over to Yeosang, he seems much more content. Wooyoung realizes they couldn’t leave him alone while he was practically in the mindset of a baby. While Yeosang lays down comfortably and closes his eyes, the couple make themselves comfortable on either side of him on the bed, embracing him. The little snuggles into Wooyoung’s chest comfortably.

“We love you, prince.” He hears, before drifting off to sleep.

Wooyoung thinks they did a great job taking care of their little prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so soft for woosansang omfg


	18. mingi's paci

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mingi insists that he doesn't need to use a paci

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i realized i don't write enough of our little princess mingi, so here's an idea i've wanted to write up for a while <3

All of the members were aware that little Mingi had somewhat of an oral fixation. He'd always subconsciously bring his thumb up to his mouth and suck on it while watching TV or sleeping, or doing anything else. While they were all aware of this, they all also knew that he refused to use a paci.

"Minnie a big boy!" He would say. "Don' need a paci!"

He would protest whenever Hongjoong or Seonghwa brought up the idea of using a paci. They figured it hurt his pride, so they tried not to bring it up. 

That didn't mean the problem went away.

Seonghwa was watching a Disney movie with little Mingi when Mingi took his hand in his. _Adorable_ , Seonghwa thinks, looking at him lovingly. But then Mingi brings his hand up to his mouth and starts softly nibbling and sucking on his fingers. 

"M-Minnie, don't do that! It's dirty." Seonghwa says almost embarrassedly, pulling his hand away. Mingi pouts, looking as though he has no idea what he did wrong. 

"How about I bring you a paci?" Seonghwa attempts to ease the idea into his head. As expected, the little vigorously shakes his head. "No! Minnie don' need a paci!" 

"Come on, Mingi. All of your brothers use pacis, and they're big boys too." Mingi shakes his head again. 

"Sangie and Jjongie baby, an' they use paci!" Mingi huffs. "Minnie not a baby!" 

Seonghwa sighs in defeat. "Okay, but you need to stop biting my fingers." He says. Mingi slumps back against the sofa, letting go of Seonghwa's hand. 

The pair are silent for the rest of the movie. 

═══════☆═══════

The boys aren't sure what to do. Mingi still hasn't broken his habit, now almost always sucking his thumb while in little space, even when the members told him to stop. He did it so much to the point where the skin on his thumb was always bitten and red. 

Seonghwa suggested giving him lollipops to suck on instead, but Hongjoong knew the sugar rush would be too much for Mingi, making him more excited than he usually was. 

They knew they had to do something about it. 

Seonghwa and Hongjoong decide to enlist the help of Yunho in the little idea they came up with. Being the closest to Mingi both in and out of little space, they figured that maybe Mingi would listen to him. 

"Just tell him that you bought him a special gift and give it to him". Seonghwa says, handing him a sparkly blue paci. They knew Mingi loved being surprised with gifts, and loved anything that sparkled just as much. This would be the best way to get him to quit his habit. Yunho nods, taking the paci. 

═══════☆═══════

"Yunnie hyung!" Mingi happily engulfs Yunho in a bear hug when he sees him enter the living room. 

"Hi, precious! What are you playing with there?" Yunho doesn't want to scare Mingi with the paci straight away, instead opting for friendly conversation to make the little comfortable. 

"Transformer!" Mingi holds up the bright yellow and black action figure, flying it around in the air as though demonstrating to Yunho. 

"Wow!" Yunho says with exaggerated excitement. "Can hyung play with you as well?" He asks, while sitting cross legged next to Mingi. The little nods, handing him another action figure. 

As expected, not even 5 minutes later, Mingi has his thumb lodged in his mouth, sucking on it absentmindedly while playing with the action figure with his other hand. 

"Ah, Minnie-ah, you know you aren't supposed to do that." Yunho tuts, gently moving his hand away from his mouth. Mingi pouts sadly. "Actually, Yunho got Minnie a special gift." 

"S'prise?" Mingi asks excitedly, his eyes lighting up. 

"Yes! Close your eyes, and I'll give it to you, okay?" Mingi nods and closes his eyes, obediently waiting for his gift. He feels something soft against his lips, and instinctively opens his mouth to accept whatever it is. 

He isn't sure exactly what it is, but something about whatever is in his mouth puts his mind at ease. It's oddly relaxing, sucking on this foreign object, though Mingi has a vague idea of what it could be. He opens his eyes, and as he thought, he sees the sparkly blue ring of a paci. 

He looks up at Yunho who watches his reactions carefully. Mingi doesn't seem to protest at all. In fact, he seems far more relaxed sucking on the paci than he did before. Mingi puts down his action figure and rubs his eyes tiredly, snuggling into Yunho’s chest. 

_Mission accomplished,_ Yunho thinks while carrying the little to his room. 

═══════☆═══════

The couple coo at the sight they're met with. Mingi is slumped against Yunho's chest with his arms around him, sucking on the paci they had given Yunho earlier. Yunho fiddles with Mingi's hair, gently petting it. Whenever he stops or his movements falter, Mingi lets out a small whine in his sleep. 

Yunho notices Seonghwa and Hongjoong watching from the doorway, pressing a finger to his lips to tell them to be quiet. He also gives them a thumbs up after pointing to the paci. They smile before leaving the pair be. 

Yunho smiles fondly at the blonde haired boy. As much as Mingi said he was a big boy, he'd always be his little baby. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know the drill, feel free to request!


	19. appa's laptop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the littles plan to steal hongjoong's laptop so he comes home more often. drama ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i combined three requests for this chapter, so it's a bit longer than usual. thank you for the requests, @BabieJongho, @mytinyrosestay and @SatanUiAgi !

The littles all congregate, per the request of Wooyoung and San once Hongjoong leaves the dorm to go to the studio. They all form a circle, leaning in to hear what San had to say. Seonghwa doesn’t question it, figuring it was just another one of the littles’ questionable antics.

“We gonna steal an’ hide appa’s laptop, then appa gonna stop working an’ spend more time with us!” He whispers proudly. He and Wooyoung had secretly been planning this for weeks, and finally, it was all coming together.

“B-But, don’ appa need to work?” Jongho asks timidly.

“Don’t you miss appa, Jjongie?” The youngest boy nods. “Then we gotta do this!” San says.

“Okay, Woo gonna tell everyone the plan!” Wooyoung interjects. “Appa gonna go to studio then Jjongie and Sangie gonna distwac papa. Then Woo and Sannie gonna steal appa’s laptop from his room!” He whispers excitedly.

“Distwac?” Yeosang tilts his head curiously.

“I think you mean distract, Woo.” Yunho smiles. “Distract means Sangie and Jongie have to make sure papa doesn’t go into appa’s room, okay?” The two littles nod in understanding.

“Then Yunnie and Minnie make sure papa don’ come in his room, and then appa gonna come back an’ spend time with us!” He says triumphantly.

The littles all agree to the plan and how it would be carried out. Surely, nothing could go wrong, right?

═══════☆═══════

“Papa?” Seonghwa is greeted with Yeosang pulling on his sleeve.

“Yes, sweetheart?” 

“Um, Jjongie uh-” he looks at Mingi and Yunho, who are hiding behind the sofa, for help. Yunho makes a fake throwing up gesture. 

“Oh! Jjongie icky.” He says, trying his best to look sad.

“Jjongie feels icky? Where is he?” Seonghwa asks, concerned. Yeosang pulls on his hoodie sleeve again, pulling him towards Jongho’s dorm room. When they’re out of sight, Yunho and Mingi signal to San and Wooyoung, who silently sneak into Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s room. 

The pair look around for the laptop before Wooyoung lets out a triumphant “aha!”. He’s holding Hongjoong’s Macbook, where he found it on his bunk bed. When Yunho and Mingi give them the “all clear” signal, the four boys make their way to Yunho and Mingi’s dorm, where they decided to reconvene. It takes a moment for Jongho and Yeosang to come back, but finally, the six littles are reunited.

“We got it!” Wooyoung yells before Yunho shushes him.

“Now me and Yunnie will hide it.” Mingi smiles. The littles were excited to finally have more time with their appa. 

═══════☆═══════

“Kids, have you seen my laptop anywhere?” Hongjoong asks, pacing around the dorm stressfully. The littles all look up at their appa innocently, shrugging. He raises an eyebrow suspiciously.

“Yunho?” His eldest wouldn’t lie to him.

“Dunno, appa.” Yunho says innocently.

“I can’t go to the studio without it.” Hongjoong sighs. “I had some important files on there. Hwa, have you seen it?” Seonghwa also shakes his head. 

“Papa stay home?” Jongho asks timidly.

Hongjoong had no other option. Plus with the hopeful way his babies were looking at him, he couldn’t say no.

“Alright, appa will stay home today.” They all cheer triumphantly. Wooyoung and San smirked knowingly at each other. Their plan had worked.

“Spend some time with them, Joong. I’ll go look for it.” Seonghwa says.

The littles can’t contain their excitement while playing with Hongjoong. They all played a game of Uno (the littles had no idea how to play, they just threw down cards whenever they felt like it and squealed in excitement when they thought they won) and started a Disney movie when Seonghwa got back, laptop in hand.

The littles stare wide eyed. How did he manage to find it?

“Care to explain why this was in Woo and Sannie’s room?” The question is directed at the mischievous pair.

Wooyoung gulps nervously as San comes up with an excuse. “Jjongie’s fault!” He says. The littles all look at him in shock. How could they throw Jongho under the bus like that? Jongho whines in complaint, “No! Sannie lying!” 

San shakes his head. “Jjongie wanted to watch cartoons so he took appa’s laptop an’ watched in our room.” He says matter of factly.

Jongho starts crying, comforted by Yunho and Yeosang who pat his arm comfortingly. “N-No! A-Appa, Sannie lie!” He didn’t want to expose their actual plan to Hongjoong either, otherwise all of them would get in trouble.

“Shh, it’s okay darling. Appa believes you.” He picks up Jongho and kisses his forehead as he continues crying, patting the back of his head. “And you two,” he glares at San and Wooyoung, “Say sorry to Jjongie.” 

“But-”

“Apologize, right now.” Hongjoong says sternly.

They both huff, “Sorry, Jjongie…” 

“No dessert for a week, you two. You know that we never lie.” They don’t bother complaining since they knew Hongjoong wouldn’t hesitate to make the punishment worse.

Eventually, after being consoled and carried around the living room, Jongho stops crying, and falls asleep in Hongjoong’s arms. Hongjoong puts him in bed for a nap, and returns to the living room.

“Okay, now that I’ve got my laptop I’m going back to the studio.” The littles pout. None of them bother complaining, not wanting to further frustrate Hongjoong. He bids them all goodbye, leaving Seonghwa and a group of upset littles.

═══════☆═══════

“Jongho?” The little looks up at his appa, tilting his head curiously.

“Why was my laptop in your room?” 

Wooyoung and San watch from where they’re sitting on the couch. After Hongjoong had punished them for lying about Jongho stealing his laptop, they came up with another plan just between them. They knew the blame would be shifted to Jongho if Hongjoong found his laptop in the boy’s room. So they managed to steal it again, and plant it in his room.

“H-Huh? I dunno, appa!” 

Hongjoong shakes his head. “Jjongie, don’t lie to me.” 

“‘M not lying, Jjongie didn’ use appa’s laptop!” He says, his bottom lip shaking.

“Then why was it in your room?” Jongho can’t get anything out, instead shaking his head and starting to cry. Hongjoong always found it hardest to punish Jongho out of all of them, since he was always so well behaved and would always cry whenever Hongjoong had to punish him.

“I told you all yesterday, we don’t lie.” Hongjoong says in the strictest voice he can manage. “No cartoons for three days Jongho, okay?” The little pouts sadly, wiping his tears away. He turns his gaze to Wooyoung and San when Hongjoong leaves the room. He knows they must’ve done something.

They both come up to Jongho and give him a hug. They didn’t realise that their actions would be such a big deal.

“Sorry, Jjongie…” Wooyoung pouts. “We won’ be meanies anymore.” San nods in agreement. 

“Is okay.” Jongho sniffs. “I wan’ appa to come home…” He says sadly.

“Me too.” San says.

═══════☆═══════

“Sannie an’ Woo lied, an’ we sorry. Jjongie a good boy, he didn’ steal appa’s laptop.” The two littles bow their heads in shame, stealing glances at Hongjoong to look at his expression.

“Gosh, what am I going to do with you two…” He mumbles in disappointment. “Did you apologize to Jongho?” They nod. “I’ll deal with you two later.” He says almost threateningly. Right now his main concern is Jongho.

Hongjoong finds Jongho in his room, snuggled up in Seonghwa’s chest. He sees that the little isn’t sleeping.

“Hey little one.” Hongjoong says softly. Jongho whines, hiding his face in Seonghwa’s clavicle. 

“What’s wrong?” Hongjoong asks, looking at Seonghwa.

“Apparently you scared him yesterday.” He says quietly, soothingly stroking the youngest boy’s hair. “Hey Jjongie, why don’t you talk to appa?” He shakes his head. “Appa will be super nice, I promise.” Jongho looks up at his papa.

“A-Appa scawy.” He says quietly. Hongjoong’s heart breaks with those two words.

“I’m sorry Jjongie, I know you weren’t lying yesterday. Jjongie is such a good boy, my best boy.” He says with a cheerful tone.

“Jjongie good boy?” He looks up at Hongjoong shyly.

“Yes, my precious baby. Do you want to watch cartoons with appa?” Jongho nods happily and makes grabby hands towards Hongjoong, who picks him up and carries him to the living room. 

The two fall asleep on the couch together in the middle of an episode of Pororo the Penguin. Seonghwa coos at the sight, covering both of them in a blanket. He knew he would have to get Hongjoong to come home more often.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> request in the comments~ :)


	20. jjongie's nap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho can't sleep at night after his afternoon nap. luckily, his hyung is there to help him fall back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @mytinyrosestay ! i'm sorry it took a while, it got lost in my inbox lol

Jongho whines in complaint when he feels something gently shaking him awake. He pushes the hand on his shoulder away, then cuddles his stuffie closer against his chest.

“Come on baby boy, it’s time to wake up. Appa made you a bottle”. He hears Hongjoong’s comforting voice.

“No, don’ wanna…” Jongho whines quietly. “Jjongie wan’ sleep.” 

“You’ve already napped for a long time, sweetheart. If you keep sleeping you’ll be cranky at night. And you need to eat.” Jongho shakes his head, refusing to get up. 

Hongjoong opts for his last resort. He reaches into Jongho’s crib and picks him up. He doesn’t expect what happens next. Jongho cries out, almost screaming, squirming in Hongjoong’s arms to be let back down in his crib.

“Ok ok ok, appa’s putting you back. It’s okay Jjongie.” Hongjoong says gently. There aren’t any tears, but Jongho’s still sobbing quietly, cuddling his stuffie tightly. He lays back down comfortably, letting Hongjoong tuck him back in his soft blankets.

“Goodnight, my baby boy.” He hears before drifting back off to sleep.

═══════☆═══════

Jongho wakes up to complete darkness. He’s still wrapped up in his warm blankets with his stuffie in arm as he was a few hours ago. He figures it must be nighttime now. 

Jongho shuffles around, trying to fall back asleep. His muscles ache from being in the same position for so long. He talks to his stuffie and sings himself a lullaby appa usually sings to him when he finds that he can’t fall asleep. Even after those attempts, he still can’t sleep. Jongho pouts sadly. He wanted his appa but he couldn’t bring him here.

One, he couldn’t get out of his crib by himself. Two, he didn’t want to bother his appa so late at night. And three, appa was right and he should’ve listened to him. Jongho knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep if he napped in the afternoon, but he did it anyway. All of these realisations bring tears to Jongho’s eyes as he sits up.

All he can do is softly cry in his crib. He doesn’t want to wake anybody up. He wipes his tears, looking at his elephant stuffie.

“What do we do?” He says sadly. His tears don’t stop streaming down his face. He lays down, cuddling his stuffie and crying softly.

═══════☆═══════

Yeosang jerks awake in the middle of the night. He rubs his eyes tiredly, checking the time on his phone. It was around 2 in the morning. He decides to make a cup of warm milk to help him go back to sleep.

Yeosang gets out of bed and starts making his way towards the kitchen, stopping in his tracks when he thinks he hears something. He walks back to Jongho’s door, where he thought he heard the noise. It sounds like muffled crying.

Yeosang carefully opens the door, not wanting to startle Jongho. He flicks the light on, finding Jongho in his crib, sobbing into his hands. He looks up at Yeosang, his eyes red and puffy, his cheeks tear stained.

“S-Sangie hyung!” He cries out.

Yeosang rushes over to the boy, picking him up from his crib and soothingly shushing him as he continues crying. He waits until Jongho’s cries reduce to sniffles.

“What happened, baby bear? Why can’t Jjongie sleep?” He asks the boy softly.

Jongho has his face buried in Yeosang’s chest, but he still makes out what he says. “Jjongie nap nap too long, a-an’ can’t sleep…” He says quietly, his voice broken.

“Do you want to cuddle with Sangie-hyung?” 

“H-Hungwy…” Jongho whimpers.

“Want Sangie-hyung to make you a bottle?” The boy nods.

Yeosang carries Jongho over to the kitchen, seating him on the counter. He finds that there’s a bottle already prepared for him in the fridge, so he heats it up. While the bottle is warming up in the microwave, he checks on Jongho and gives him comforting kisses. His heart warms when Jongho lets out a tiny giggle. The microwave beeps, and Jongho points at it excitedly. 

Yeosang picks up the bottle and hands it to Jongho. The boy pouts and shakes his head, handing it back to Yeosang.

“H-Hyung give Jjongie, please.” He mumbles shyly.

Yeosang had never done this before. Hongjoong or Seonghwa were usually around to take care of the littles when they were this young, and especially when they had to be bottle-fed.

He picks Jongho up with the bottle in one hand, and awkwardly positions himself and Jongho on the sofa, laying the younger boy in the crook of his arm comfortably.

“Is this okay?” He feels silly asking, but he didn’t want Jongho to be uncomfortable. The little nods, making grabby hands towards the bottle. Yeosang brings the nipple of the bottle to Jongho’s lips, tilting the bottle carefully. Finally, he finds a comfortable pace for Jongho, the young boy sucking on the bottle hungrily.

In no time, Jongho has finished the bottle, looking far more content now than he did before. Yeosang carries him back to his room once he’s done cleaning Jongho’s bottle.

“Does Jjongie wanna go back to his crib or cuddle with Sangie-hyung in bed?” 

“C-Cuddle, please”. Jongho yawns, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Yeosang tucks Jongho in his bed before joining him, wrapping his arms around him. 

“U-Um, Sangie-hyung?”

“Yes, angel?” 

“Sing, please?” 

Yeosang pulls Jongho closer, softly stroking his soft hair. He starts singing him a lullaby, the lull of his deep voice comforting Jongho and causing him to snuggle closer to his chest. Jongho quickly falls asleep to the sound of his favourite hyung’s soothing voice.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh, i just imagined yeosang singing his part in "with u" to jongho at the end and now i'm soft 🥺 jongsang deserve more love
> 
> as always, request in the comments! <3


	21. tiny sangie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeosang feels insecure slipping into babyspace when the members tease him for it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow!! i was overwhelmed with all the love and requests last chapter. everyone's ideas for this series are so good, and i have plenty to write now, so thank you so much!! <3 your comments make me really happy !
> 
> thank you for the request @moonchildx , i hope you like it! i'm a sucker for baby sangie 🥺

Wooyoung and Yeosang were happily occupying themselves with their toys, under Seonghwa’s careful watch. 

Yeosang happily gurgled around his paci everytime he heard the noise his rattle made whenever he shook it, but eventually he got bored of it. He looks up to see what his brother was playing with. He watches with fascination as Wooyoung makes some sort of animal out of Play-Doh.

Curiously, Yeosang reaches out to poke at the strange substance Wooyoung was playing with. Wooyoung pulls it away from the little’s reach.

“No, Sangie! You’re too tiny to play with this!”

Yeosang tilted his head curiously. Why wouldn’t Wooyoung let him play with the weird squishy thing? 

“Wooyoung-” Seonghwa is interrupted when Yeosang bursts out crying.

“Oh no, my poor baby..." Seonghwa rushes to pick up Yeosang, comforting the younger boy. 

“What happened? Wooyoungie won’t let you play with the Play-Doh?” Seonghwa says in his sympathetic baby voice. Yeosang’s paci falls out of his mouth as he wails louder.

“But papa! Yeosangie too small to play with it!” Seonghwa gives Wooyoung the look, the look that tells him to be quiet.

Seonghwa picks up Yeosang’s rattle, waving it in front of him until he stops crying and reaches out for it curiously, letting out a “ooh!” 

“There you go, sweetheart.” He hands the rattle back to Yeosang, putting him back down on the playmat. And just like that, Yeosang’s interest in his rattle returns.

Seonghwa turns his attention to Wooyoung. “Woo, just because Yeosangie is younger, it doesn’t mean you don’t share with him.” 

“But Sangie is tiny! He can’t play with it!” Wooyoung argues.

“Yes, you’re right, but he’s very tiny right now, so he’ll cry if you don’t share with him.” 

Wooyoung pouts, confused. Yeosang wasn’t supposed to play with big toys, but Wooyoung was supposed to share his big toys with him? It made no sense.

“Fine.” Wooyoung huffs.

“Good boy. Now share with him, please.” 

Seonghwa regrets saying so, because he ended up having to diffuse a situation where Yeosang attempted to eat the Play-Doh out of curiosity, and Wooyoung yelled at him, resulting in more tears.

═══════☆═══════

Needless to say, word of the Play-Doh incident spread around the dorm. Now whenever Yeosang tried to play with his hyungs, they’d laugh at him and say, “don’t try to eat it, Yeosang.” 

He found that their teasing extended beyond the Play-Doh incident. Now they’d just poke fun at him purely because he was younger. He would find them giggling amongst themselves whenever he’d opt for playing with his baby items rather than the older littles’ toys.

It hurt Yeosang’s feelings, and as a result, he’d end up regressing to an older headspace to avoid being teased. When he asked Yunho and Mingi if he could play with them, they just laughed and handed him his teething ring, then went back to playing with their toy cars.

Yeosang threw the teething ring away. “Sangie’s big today!” He whines, crossing his arms and frowning.

The pair don’t say anything, and instead give him a toy car to play with. Yeosang accepts it happily, joining the pair in zooming the cars around on the floor.

As much as Yeosang wanted to enjoy it, playing with the toy car just didn’t appeal to him. He turns his attention back to the teething ring they handed him before. He desperately wanted to chew on it instead of playing cars with Yunho and Mingi, but he wouldn’t let them know that. He knew they’d make fun of him for it. 

He fights off his urge and wills himself to keep playing with the cars until he just couldn’t bear it anymore. His internal conflict between the cars and teething ring effectively pulls him out of his headspace. It didn’t feel fun anymore. He sighs, leaving the toy car and locking himself in his room.

Regressing wasn’t supposed to be this stressful.

═══════☆═══════

Hongjoong picked up on how Yeosang had been quiet lately, never regressing even when the rest of the boys were little. As one of the few members who often slipped into the headspace of a baby, Hongjoong knew Yeosang also regressed more often than the others. So, like the good leader and appa he is, he decides to confront him about it, and maybe even help him regress.

“Where’s my little Sangie, hm? Appa misses him.” Hongjoong says, pouting for extra effect.

“Stop hyung, I don’t need to regress.” Yeosang grumbles. The other members would just make fun of him, he knew it. Despite this, he doesn’t protest when Hongjoong cuddles him and rocks him gently in his arms, as he would whenever he was in babyspace. 

“I know my Sangie wants to come out and play. It’ll just be Sangie and Appa, I promise.” Yeosang looks up, tears brimming his eyes.

“B-But Sangie baby! Bad!” He cries, his tears spilling down his cheeks now.

“Shh it’s okay, sweetheart. Being a baby isn’t bad. I love my baby Sangie so much.” He says softly, cradling Yeosang in his arms.

“Sangie no bad?” Yeosang looks up at him for confirmation.

“No, appa and papa love our baby Sangie so much.” 

“B-But hyungs… hyungs laugh at baby Sangie.” 

“Your hyungs love you too, I promise. They’re just being silly. Does my Sangie want to be little?” 

Yeosang blushes. “S-Sangie wants to be tiny.” He says quietly.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Appa’s here.” He whispers, stroking Yeosang’s blonde hair.

It’s enough to make Yeosang fully submerge into his little headspace. He giggles happily, giving Hongjoong a kiss on the cheek. Hongjoong shuffles around for a paci, softly pressing it to Yeosang’s lips. The boy happily accepts it, sucking on it peacefully. 

He muffles what Hongjoong can only assume to be, “I love you” around the paci.

“I love you too, my little Sangie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little sangie reminds me of the "no talk me im angy" meme hehe
> 
> also unfortunately i’m locked out of my twitter (@stars_hwa) rn and i can’t message anyone :( so feel free to msg my spam @starryhwahwa if you want to talk abt anything at all ! (come cry w me over little sangie)
> 
> feel free to request in the comments <3


	22. sannie's birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the members are planning a surprise party for san, but he thinks they're ignoring him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday to our favourite 4th gen it boy, choi san! <3
> 
> thank you for the request/idea @tiffanysingapore !

San wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. The members were acting suspicious recently, especially around him, and he had no idea why. 

He first noticed when it was just him and Seonghwa in the dorms.

“Papa, where Wooyoungie?” He asks Seonghwa. He missed his one and only partner in crime.

“Wooyoungie’s out with appa and your brothers. They’re all out, so it’s just you and me.” Seonghwa says, pulling San onto his lap.

“What they doing?” San pouts, snuggling into Seonghwa’s chest. What could his brothers and appa possibly be doing without inviting him?

“Ah, they’re erm…” Seonghwa pauses. “They’re grocery shopping”.

“Gross shopping? Why?” 

Seonghwa chuckles, ruffling his hair. “Don’t worry, kiddo. Let’s just watch some cartoons, okay?” 

That was weird, San thinks afterwards when he’s big again. The members didn’t come back with any groceries, and they would never go out without saying why. 

He brushes it off, deciding not to question them about it.

═══════☆═══════

“Sannie, if you could have anything in the whole wide world, what would it be?” Wooyoung suddenly asks, watching him carefully.

San ponders for a moment before clutching Shiber tightly. “More stuffies! Friends for Shiber!” 

“Ooh, okay!” Then Wooyoung is running off. San watches him curiously, then sees him stop in the kitchen, where Seonghwa and Hongjoong are. He sees Wooyoung whisper something in Hongjoong’s ear. Hongjoong smiles at Wooyoung then ruffles his hair, saying, “good boy, Woo!”, then handing him a lollipop.

That was strange. Hongjoong never gave them candy unless they were really  _ really  _ good. Maybe Hongjoong was having a really good day today.

San decides to take his chances. He waddles over to the kitchen, where Hongjoong is putting the lolly jar away on a high shelf.

“Appa, Sannie wan’s lolly too please!” He says, giving Hongjoong his best puppy eyes.

Hongjoong shakes his head. “Did you eat all your vegetables last night? Or go to bed on time?” San stays silent, knowing he did neither of those things. “That’s what I thought.” Hongjoong says dismissively while putting the jar away.

But then why did Wooyoung get a lollipop? He knows for a fact that Wooyoung didn’t finish his vegetables at dinner or go to bed on time either. What did he do that made Hongjoong give him a lollipop? 

He watches Wooyoung happily sucking away on his lollipop with jealousy. 

═══════☆═══════

“Sangie, where are you going?” San watches as Seonghwa dresses the little in an oversized pink sweater and helps him tie his shoes up.

“Sangie going cake shop with papa!” Yeosang says happily. Seonghwa gives Yeosang a warning look. He didn’t want Yeosang to spoil the surprise they had planned.

“Huh? Cake shop? Why?” San questions Yeosang. 

“U-Um, Sangie wan’s cake.” Yeosang says nervously, picking up on the glare Seonghwa gives him.

“Sannie wan’ cake too! Papa, can Sannie go too, please?” 

Seonghwa shakes his head, crouching down to where San is sitting on the playmat. “I have a very important mission at home for you Sannie, do you think you can do it?

San gasps curiously, his eyes widening. “Special mission for Sannie?” 

“Yes! Go to appa, and he’ll tell you.” San nods obediently, excitedly making his way to Hongjoong’s dorm room.

Seonghwa sighs in relief. Their secret surprise was almost exposed.

═══════☆═══════

Hongjoong isn’t sure what to do when he gets a text from Seonghwa saying,  _ “Keep Sannie distracted. Going to the cake shop with Sangie for the party.” _

Not even a minute after he gets the text, San is in his room, jumping excitedly.

“Appa have special mission for Sannie?” 

Hongjoong mentally curses Seonghwa. He does his best to think up something on the spot.

“Yes! Can you help appa with his song?” San nods. Hongjoong places his bulky headphones over San’s ears, playing the last thing he had been working on.

San looks pleased by the time the song is finished. “Good! Sannie likes it.” He smiles.

“Thanks, Sannie! You helped appa so much, I think Sannie should get a lollipop.” 

San’s eyes widen excitedly. Sure, he didn’t get cake, but at least appa was giving him a lollipop. It was still strange that papa didn’t invite him to the cake shop though.

═══════☆═══════

San hated it. He knew there was definitely something going on that he didn’t know about. The members would randomly disappear and make up an excuse as to why they were gone, and he seemed to be the only one who was questioning why. 

He finally decides he’s had enough.

“Why everyone leave Sannie?” He huffs when everyone’s altogether, crossing his arms. Seven pairs of eyes turn to look at him, on the verge of a temper tantrum.

“San-” 

“No! Everyone going out without Sannie an-an’ leaving Sannie alone at home! It’s not fair!” He says angrily. Tears are springing up in his eyes. He’s about to run away and lock himself in his room before he hears Hongjoong sigh.

“I guess we’ll have to do it now.” He says. San tilts his head curiously.

“Get dressed guys, we’re going to the practice room.” 

═══════☆═══════

When Hongjoong turns the light of the practice room on, San is met with an incredible sight. He sees a banner and balloons that read “Happy Birthday San” hanging above a table full of stuffies surrounding a birthday cake. The boys start singing happy birthday while he runs to the table of stuffies, cuddling one.

“F-For Sannie?” He asks shyly when they’re done singing. Hongjoong nods, smiling.

“I love you appa, papa, hyungs!” He says happily, inspecting all of his new stuffies and giving them names one by one.

The rest of the members watch the sight adoringly. They smother San with hugs, and soon enough, they pile onto each other to form a cramped group hug.

“We love you too Sannie.” Hongjoong says. “Happy birthday, our prince.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked it! leave requests in the comments <3


	23. jongho's ouchie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho has to stay home because of his injury, but he regresses all alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @ceereads ! i hope you like it <3
> 
> i've been falling for the baby bear jongho agenda ever since his bear filter twitter post omgg
> 
> also whew, i'm sorry requests are taking longer than usual, but i'm trying to power through them!

Following his injury, it was necessary for Jongho to take a break from his schedules and promotions. This meant he was spending more time at the dorms by himself for the first few weeks, while the other members were practicing for their next comeback. No matter how much Jongho wanted to accompany them, Hongjoong refused and made him rest at home. 

This also posed an issue for when he wanted to regress. Normally, he’d need somebody to take care of him when he was little, as he wasn’t old enough to take care of himself. Being alone in the dorms most of the time meant he couldn’t regress, since no one was there to take care of him. Plus with his injury, it was even harder to do the things he’d normally want to do, like run around and play with his hyungs even when they were home.

He recalls when Hongjoong had lectured the rest of the boys about his injury when they were all little.

“Now boys, Jjongie has a boo boo on his leg, so we need to be extra careful when we play with him, okay?” The boys all nod in unison. 

Yeosang crawled over to Jongho, pressing a kiss to his cast. Jongho tilts his head in confusion.

“Sangie kiss it better!” He grins happily, as though he just solved the problem.

Hongjoong smiles at him endearingly, ruffling his hair. “Good job, Sangie! But Jjongie has a big ouchie, so it’ll take a long time to get better.” Yeosang pouts, cuddling Jongho’s arm in consolation.

None of them expected Jongho to burst into tears at that moment.

“Oh no, baby bear! What’s wrong?” Seonghwa cradles the boy, who’s still cuddling Yeosang.

“J-Jongie wanna play with hyungs! Don’ wan’ ouchie!” He pouts, brings his hands up in tiny fists to wipe his tears.

“It’s okay Jjongie, you’re such a strong boy. Your ouchie will be gone soon, and then you can play with your hyungs again.” Seonghwa consoles him, kissing his forehead.

The rest of the evening is spent with the boys surrounding Jongho, playing and focusing all their attention on him. By the end of the night, the littles all fall asleep watching Despicable Me. Seonghwa and Hongjoong gaze at them lovingly, carrying them to bed one by one, tucking them in and kissing them goodnight.

═══════☆═══════

Jongho wakes up to someone shaking him awake. It’s still dark outside, though the first rays of daylight are starting to stream in through his window. 

“Hyung?” He sees a familiar shade of white hair.

“We’re off to practice.” Hongjoong says. “Will you be okay?” 

Jongho nods. “Don’t worry about me.” 

“Good. Call us if you need anything.” Hongjoong smiles. He kisses his forehead, and Jongho groans in complaint. He never kissed Jongho when he wasn’t little, but he just simply looked too cute with his bedhead and sleepy morning pout. 

═══════☆═══════

Jongho eventually grew bored of doing vocal warm ups and binge watching dramas. He goes on Youtube, and the first thing to come up is a Pocoyo compilation. Jongho longingly stares at the thumbnail for a good fifteen seconds. A tiny voice in his head says, “ _ No, stop!”  _ One, realistically, it’d be too hard to be little by himself. And two, he knew he wasn’t supposed to watch cartoons without appa or papa’s permission.

He clicks on the video.

He giggles in joy when he hears the familiar voice of the narrator. He fully drifts off into his little headspace as the cartoon keeps playing. 

An hour later, the compilation video is over, and Jongho is left with a black screen. Oh. What was he supposed to do now? It now dawned on him that he was little, and all by himself.

He bursts into tears.

He sobs, not knowing what to do. He didn’t even know where his paci was, and he couldn’t nap without someone tucking him into bed. He wanted his appa.

Jongho fiddles with his phone, trying to figure out how to get to his contacts. He figures it out when he notices the person icon at the bottom of his screen. He taps on it, and the first contact with a golden star next to it is Hongjoong’s. Thank goodness.

He calls Hongjoong, the phone ringing three times before he picks up. “Hello?” 

“A-Appa!” Jongho chokes out through his tears.

“Oh no, Jongho! Do you want appa to come home?” He didn’t even need to ask if anything happened. Just the fact that Jongho was little was enough to make him rush back home. 

Jongho nods frantically, even though Hongjoong can’t see it.

“Baby bear?” 

“Y-Yes, please appa.” Jongho sniffs.

“Okay, appa will be home soon. I love you, my little bear. Can you stay on the phone?” 

Jongho can’t get any words out, still sniffing and crying softly. 

Hongjoong consoles Jongho with comforting words while on the phone with him, praising him for being such a brave boy. Eventually, Jongho stops crying. He hears the click of the door opening.

“A-Appa here?” He whimpers into the phone.

“Yes, I’m here baby boy!” Hongjoong is standing at the door.

“Appa!” He makes grabby hands towards him. Hongjoong carefully cuddles him, helping him comfortably lay on his bed.

“I missed you.” Hongjoong says, while laying down next to him and teasingly tickling his sides. Jongho giggles, giving Hongjoong his gummy smile that he longed to see. 

“Missed you too, appa.” Jongho nuzzles his face into Hongjoong’s neck.

“Did you eat?” He asks.

“Mhm, Jjongie eat already.” He says quietly. He sucks on the collar of Hongjoong’s shirt, getting it damp with his saliva. 

“Is baby bear’s leg okay?” 

“Mhm.” Jongho responds sleepily. 

He whines in complaint when Hongjoong gets up to get his paci from the bedside table. He instantly goes silent when the paci is pressed to his lips, and Hongjoong joins him again. He sighs contentedly, closing his eyes.

“I love you, my little bear.” Jongho quietly hums in response, falling asleep in his appa’s comforting embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come talk to me on twitter at @starryhwahwa 🥺 and thank you to the people who have msged me from ao3, you guys are so sweet!! <3
> 
> and as always, feel free to leave requests!


	24. cooking with woo and papa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> seonghwa and wooyoung cook together after wooyoung attempts to make food for the family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @SatanUiAgi !
> 
> also, i’m sorry i’m taking longer than usual to update and get requests done! i’m not doing reqs in any particular order so if you sent yours a few days ago, don’t worry i’m getting to it ! 🥺
> 
> i’m going to be busy for the next few days, so i’m sorry if i don’t update as often 👉👈

The littles and Hongjoong and Seonghwa are all seated on the living room floor around a tiny plastic table, per the request of Wooyoung. They’re all cramped together, but they don’t complain. The black haired boy is hard at work, organising his plastic tea set with Disney princesses plastered on them. He rushes around to his fake kitchen set as well, pretending to prepare their dinner. The boys all watch as he pours imaginary tea into everyone’s cups, looking at them expectantly.

Wooyoung always had an interest in cooking, especially after the group had started posting their own YouTube content. Hongjoong and Seonghwa were surprised to find that his interest also carried over to his little space, when he begged them to buy him a toy kitchen set. When they finally decided to buy it for him, he was obsessed. Wooyoung wouldn’t be seen in his little space without playing in his small kitchen setup. It even got to the point where he’d rather play by himself in the kitchen than with the other members.

Seonghwa takes a pretend sip from his tiny plastic cup. “Wow, Woo! Did you make this yourself?” 

The boy nods, grinning proudly. 

“Papa loves it, good job Wooyoungie!” 

Wooyoung smiles to himself happily as he starts serving pretend food on their small plates. San tilts his head in confusion as Wooyoung gives him a plastic slice of pizza.

“How Sannie gonna eat this?” He asks, perplexed. Seonghwa taps the younger boy, pressing his finger to his lips to tell him to play along. 

“Shh, pretend!” Wooyoung says in annoyance. He carries on until everyone has some sort of plastic food on their plate. They all pick up their fake cutlery, pretending to dig into the food. Honestly they all had no idea why they had to do this, but appa and papa said they’d be in trouble if they didn’t play along.

“Youngie, you’re such a good cook!” Hongjoong grins at the younger boy, his heart melting at the way his face lights up with the praise. 

“Thanks, appa!” 

“Yucky!" Yeosang exclaims. They all look at him as he removes a plastic hamburger from his mouth. “Sangie don’ like it.” 

“You’re not supposed to actually eat it, baby.” Seonghwa tuts, taking away Yeosang’s plate. He doesn’t complain, grateful to have gotten rid of the gross tasting “hamburger”. 

Seeing that everybody’s about done and disinterested in their fake food, Seonghwa decides to take the upper hand. “Well, now that we’ve had Wooyoung’s amazing food, I think it’s time papa makes everybody dinner as well.”

“No!” Wooyoung protests. 

“Huh? Why?” Seonghwa questions the pouting boy, who has his arms crossed.

“Woo already make everyone food! Papa don’ need to make dinner!” 

“But sweetheart, you all have to eat real food now.” 

“But everyone already eat!” Wooyoung whines.

“Is just pretend Woo,” Mingi chimes in. “We can’t eat it!” 

“B-But Wooyoung cook for everyone!” Tears start to fill the boy’s eyes as everyone seems to agree with Seonghwa. Why were they letting all of his hard work go to waste? He even made tea for them!

“Oh no darling, don’t cry…” Hongjoong hugs Wooyoung as he wipes his tears away. “We loved your cooking Wooyoung. Right, guys?” He turns back to the rest of the boys with a somewhat threatening edge to his tone. They all nod in fear of what Hongjoong would do if they disagreed.

“Tell you what, Wooyoungie. How about you help papa make real food in the kitchen?” Seonghwa asks softly. Wooyoung’s eyes light up as he sniffs.

“R-Really?” 

“Yes, of course!” 

“W-Woo wanna cook with appa.” He says shyly.

Hongjoong hands Wooyoung over to Seonghwa, who carries him over to the kitchen. He seats him on the counter, laying out all the food items he’d need for the littles’ dinners.

First were the dino shaped nuggets for Yunho, Mingi, San and Wooyoung. Seonghwa lets Wooyoung spread them out on the baking tray. He giggles mischievously as he places more nuggets than usual on the tray, hoping Seonghwa wouldn’t notice. Of course, Seonghwa’s papa instincts kick in, and he removes the extra nuggets when Wooyoung isn’t looking. He places the tray into the oven, setting the temperature and letting them cook.

Next were the bottles of milk for the younger littles, Jongho and Yeosang. Wooyoung watches intently as Seonghwa pours the milk into the bottles. Seonghwa wouldn’t trust Wooyoung to do it, since he knew the younger would spill it everywhere.

“Does Wooyoungie wanna press the buttons?” He asks as he places the bottles into the microwave. Wooyoung nods excitedly, pressing the numbers on the microwave that his papa tells him to. He watches in fascination as the microwave lights up, making the buzzing noise he always found so interesting.

When the bottles are done, Seonghwa goes to the sofa where the littles are all working on putting away the kitchen set with Hongjoong. Jongho and Yeosang crawl up on the sofa when they see Seonghwa with their bottles. 

“I’m gonna go back to the kitchen to watch the nuggets, appa will feed you both-” 

“No, Woo can do it! Woo will watch the nuggies!” Wooyoung looks at Seonghwa with the best pleading face he can muster. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes!” 

Seonghwa sighs, contemplating whether or not this would result in the dorm burning down. He figures Wooyoung won’t be doing any actual cooking, just watching the nuggets in the oven. Plus the oven will make a sound when they’re done anyway.

“Okay, fine.” 

“Yay!” The little excitedly runs off to the kitchen. 

By the time Jongho and Yeosang are finished being fed by Hongjoong and Seonghwa, the oven dings, indicating the nuggets are done.

“Papa, ding!” Wooyoung says louder than the actual oven.

“Coming, darling.” 

Seonghwa lets Wooyoung plate up the nuggets and squirt happy faces with ketchup on them just how the littles liked them. Even though nobody for the life of them would be able to tell that those were happy faces, Wooyoung smiles proudly.

“You were such a big help, Wooyoungie! Thank you.” Seonghwa smiles at him, ruffling his hair. When he’s completely sure Hongjoong isn’t looking, he sneaks a cookie from their cookie jar to Wooyoung, pressing a finger to his lips. 

Seonghwa can tell the little is cheering internally, grinning widely at him. And honestly, he would do anything to see the smile of his precious boys, even if Hongjoong would scold him for it later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can i just say the image of seongjoong bottle feeding jongsang together has me so incredibly soft
> 
> let's be twitter moots! follow/talk to me on @starryhwahwa <3


	25. baby yunho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yunho wants to be babied too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a combination of requests from @fiction_pati and @SatanUiAgi, i hope you guys like it!
> 
> the next chapter will be a continuation of this, based off of another request :)

It was pretty obvious that the Ateez dorms were like a typical family household. You had the parents, Hongjoong and Seonghwa. The loud kids, Mingi, Wooyoung and San. The well behaved babies, Jongho and Yeosang. And of course, the responsible eldest brother, Yunho. 

Yunho was always content with helping his appa and papa take care of the chaos that came with taking care of six littles. Whether helping meant playing with the louder kids to keep them under control, or bottle feeding the younger ones, Yunho never had a problem with it. In fact he loved taking care of his little brothers, especially the youngest ones, and being the support and backbone for the littles. 

But recently, Yunho found himself wanting to be in their shoes. He'd find himself enviously longing to be in the position of Yeosang and Jongho when they were fed, burped, changed and read a bedtime story before they were tucked into bed. Being babied like that seemed to be like pure heaven. Why couldn’t he have that too?

"Yunho darling, could you please get me some pull ups for Sangie?" 

Yunho's snapped out of his little reverie when he hears Hongjoong's voice. 

"Y-Yeah, appa." 

"Thank you, Yunnie." He smiles at him. 

Having to get Yeosang's diapers was just another reminder of how much appa and papa took care of the babies. They basically had everything done for them when they were little and didn't have to worry about anything. Yunho finds that he secretly wants that too. 

He returns to Hongjoong with the box of diapers, earning a head pat and a smile. He watches with a sad pout when all of Hongjoong’s attention turns away from him as he attempts to peacefully change a squirming and whining Yeosang.

It wouldn't be that hard, right? To just go up to appa and papa and tell them he wanted to be treated like a baby too, like Jjongie and Sangie. But what if it was silly? He was the oldest of the littles, what if the rest of them made fun of him? A part of him thinks that maybe he's just supposed to be the oldest brother. He should stay in an older headspace so he can take care of his siblings like everyone expects him to, right?

Yunho brushes off his thoughts and joins his two youngest brothers when they’re seated on their play mat. 

"Uno-hyung, play play!" Yeosang squeals. He looks adorable, Yunho thinks, dressed in just a fluffy pink sweater that goes past his thighs, and his diaper. 

"Okay, Sangie. What do you wanna play?"

"Umm…" The two littles ponder together for a moment. "Peek a boo!" Jongho exclaims. 

Jongho and Yeosang spend the next half hour giggling everytime Yunho reveals his face from behind his hands. The two littles are practically in tears from the excitement and happiness of Yunho yelling out “peek a boo!” every ten seconds. Yunho watches them lovingly as they tire themselves out from laughing too hard. He wants to feel like that too.

“Okay little ones, that’s enough excitement for tonight.” Hongjoong says from where he and Seonghwa are seated on the couch, watching the littles play. “Say nighty night to hyung.” 

“Nighty night Yunnie-hyung”. The two littles synchronize in their tiny voices.

Yunho pulls on Seonghwa’s sleeve before he can turn to join Hongjoong in tucking the two littles into bed.

“Yes, puppy?” 

“U-Um…” Yunho stumbles over his words, trying to figure out how to say what he was thinking. “Can papa put Yunho in bed please?” 

Seonghwa picks up on the fact that Yunho is younger quickly. This was a first, Yunho hardly ever regressed below the age of eight or so. He notices that Yunho’s voice is smaller, higher pitched. He even spoke in third person like Yeosang does when he was little.

“Of course, sweetheart.” He lets Yunho take his hand and guide him to his room. 

“Um, paci?” Yunho asks shyly as Seonghwa comfortably tucks the blanket around Yunho, safely slotting his favourite puppy stuffie in his arm. Seonghwa reaches for a paci in their bedside table, pressing it against the littles’ lips, who accepts it gratefully.

“Okay?” Yunho nods, eyes drooping.

“Goodnight Yunho, I love you.” Seonghwa presses a kiss to his head. Yunho makes some sort of noise around his paci, as though agreeing and saying I love you back.

═══════☆═══════

Yunho jerks awake suddenly. He doesn’t know what forced him awake. All he knows is that he feels incredibly  _ tiny  _ and wants to be babied now more than ever. He also notices it’s dark. Very dark. There aren’t any cracks in his blinds, and none of the lights are on. He fishes around for his phone under his pillow, clicking it on. It’s 3am, but he focuses on using his phone as a source of light. 

Maybe watching something would help him fall asleep? He picks up his paci that has fallen out and pops it back into his mouth. When he brings up a Cocomelon video, he suddenly comes up with an idea. Maybe appa and papa were awake too?

He walks out of his room with the video still playing, so preoccupied that he forgets his original intentions to go see appa and papa. In the span of 5 minutes, Yunho lays down on the living room floor, propping up his phone by the pop socket, now completely invested in the cartoon. He giggles around his paci at the colourful and upbeat songs playing on his screen, regressing further into his tiny headspace.

If only appa or papa were here right now.

═══════☆═══════

Seonghwa wakes up as he usually does, earlier than any of the other members. His alarm clock reads 7am. He has some cleaning to do in the living room from the night before, so he figures he should do it now so he has the rest of the day free.

He untangles himself from Hongjoong’s warm embrace, earning a small whine of complaint from the other. He makes sure Hongjoong doesn’t wake up before silently twisting the doorknob and closing the door.

When he’s finished brushing his teeth and washing his face, Seonghwa makes his way to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. When he passes by the living room, he has to do a double take to make sure he isn’t imagining what he sees there. He sees a familiar fluffy head of pink hair, a phone next to the tall figure on the floor and a paci in his mouth. He quickly makes his way over to the boy, terrified that maybe something had happened.

“Yunho?” Seonghwa asks in concern, shaking the boy’s shoulder gently. He sighs in relief when Yunho grumbles and looks up at him.

“P-Papa…” He bursts out crying, and his paci falls out of his mouth. 

“Oh, Yunnie…” Seonghwa softly shushes him, gently stroking his hair. He pulls the boy onto his lap, comfortingly cuddling him. “You’re okay, papa’s here, puppy.” 

It takes a few minutes for the boy to calm down. Seonghwa wipes his tears from his cheeks, watching for any sort of indication from Yunho as to what could be wrong. Yunho doesn’t say anything, a pout gracing his features as he looks at Seonghwa with glossy eyes. 

“Wanna talk about it, baby?” Oh. Yunho realizes he  _ loves  _ being called baby. Appa and papa would never really call him that, that was just reserved for the younger ones. He shakes his head.

“That’s okay, darling. Are you hungry?” 

Yunho whines and he buries his head into Seonghwa’s neck. He grips onto his shirt tightly, nodding.

Seonghwa finally figures it out. “Is Yunnie tiny right now?” He nods again.

“Okay puppy, appa will make you a bottle.” Yunho makes a muffled noise, which Seonghwa assumes is a pleased sound. 

“Papa loves you, my little baby. You’re always working so hard, helping appa and papa and taking care of your little brothers. We’re so proud.” He says softly.

In his baby headspace, Yunho can’t quite understand exactly what Seonghwa is saying, but he knows it must be good with the way Seonghwa is smiling at him. 

“Now, let’s get some food in your tummy.” Yunho smiles into Seonghwa’s chest as he carries him over to the kitchen. For the first time in a while, he has no worries at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really need to edit some of the earlier chapters and titles asap, i'm cringing lol
> 
> come talk to me on twitter about literally anything ! @starryhwahwa


	26. yunho and mingi's afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yunho and mingi regress together with no one to take care of them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my goodness,,, i'm so sorry i've taken so much longer than usual to update lol. will explain more at the end lol
> 
> thank you for the reqs, @Laydefsoul413 and @MichaelTheMicrophone, i hope you like it!
> 
> and thank you to my good friend @BabieJongho for keeping me motivated this whole time <3 i love you

Yunho had gotten more comfortable regressing to a younger headspace once Hongjoong and Seonghwa had shown him that it was completely fine. They were more than happy to take care of him with Jongho and Yeosang when he felt tiny and had that familiar spaced out look in his eyes. Yunho was surprised with how well the other members had taken it - he was almost completely sure that the rest of the littles would make fun of him for wanting to be tiny, but they loved playing with their hyung when he was that little.

Today, it was just Mingi and Yunho at the dorms. The rest of the members had their own schedules to attend to, leaving the couple alone. The two had nothing planned except to take advantage of their day off and have a lazy day, involving eating junk and binge watching TV shows. 

Despite this, Yunho couldn't help it when he felt himself starting to slip. The schedules from the week had taken its toll on him, and he just needed to regress. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, but he felt it might have been when he felt like he needed to slip to a younger age. Regressing to basically a baby's age was still new to him, so he felt panicked when he felt himself slipping when Hongjoong and Seonghwa weren't there. 

All of this was too much for him, so he burst into tears. 

"Yunho, what's wrong?" Mingi spoke with concern and immediately started to comfort him, pulling him into a hug. 

"Hey, you're okay, shh…" Mingi gently rocked him, having an idea of why he could be crying. "Are you little?" 

Yunho nods and sniffs. 

"Hey, it's okay, I'm here." He says softly. But he doesn't want Yunho to know that he's secretly freaking out. As one of the more childlike littles, Mingi has never been in a situation where he's had to take care of one of the others, so he doesn't quite know what he's supposed to do. 

"U-Um." He says awkwardly. "Do you need anything, Yunnie?" The nickname felt foreign to him when he was out of little space. 

"P-Play?" Yunho sniffs and looks up at the younger, giving him the cutest dewy puppy eyes that he couldn’t deny.

"Of course." Mingi smiles at him, making his way towards their toy chest. He brings out two action figures, showing them to Yunho, who nods in approval. Mingi notices Yunho still stays firmly seated on the sofa, watching Mingi expectantly as he sits down on the playmat.

"Help." Yunho says quietly, making grabby hands towards Mingi, then towards the floor. 

"Oh!" Mingi realizes he must be so small that he can't quite move around by himself. He does his best to pick up Yunho and maneuver him onto the mat. He ends up awkwardly plopping Yunho onto the mat, the little letting out an "oof" when he lands ungracefully. 

“Sorry, love.” Mingi’s cheeks flush as he hands Yunho one of his action figures. The little giggles in delight as he pretends to fly the toy through the air, Mingi following suit.

In the span of half an hour, Mingi has regressed as well, and with no one looking after them, the living room is an absolute mess. They’ve gone through practically their entire toy chest, the floor now littered with action figures, puzzle pieces, stuffies and random train tracks. As though the living room isn’t messy enough, Mingi perks up.

“Minnie got an idea!” Yunho tilts his head curiously, as though questioning what his brilliant idea was.

“Minnie go get paint from appa’s room, then Yunnie and Minnie paint!” Mingi knew Hongjoong kept paint and dye in his room from when he would have random strokes of inspiration and feel like reforming something. Yunho claps in excitement, showing he agrees with the idea. 

Minnie gets up and makes his way to Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s room, rummaging around a few drawers before finding what he was looking for. He finds a tub of random tubes of paint. He also finds an empty notebook, which he figures would be perfect for painting in.

When he returns, he and Yunho work on uncapping as many of the tubes of paint as they can. Since he couldn’t find any paintbrushes, they end up resorting to using their fingers to paint pictures on their pieces of paper. 

Out of curiosity, Mingi looks at Yunho’s paper, finding random coloured splotches. “What Yunnie paint?” He asks.

“Our fam’ly!” Yunho giggles, pointing to the painted blobs on the page as though it were obvious. “Here, appa and papa, Jjongie Sangie, Yunnie, Minnie, Woo and Sannie!” 

Neither of them notice the front door click open in the midst of Yunho’s explanation. The littles’ eyes widen nervously when they see who’s at the door. San takes in the sight of the array of toys spread out all over the living room floor, but most importantly, his eyes wander over to the paint splotches on the playmat and on the littles’ hands. He sighs and shakes his head, knowing Hongjoong would end up scolding all of them.

“What happened here?” He asks with a hint of frustration.

“Y-Yunnie and Minnie play.” Mingi squeaks out after a small pause. 

“Yunho, why didn’t you stop him before he could make a mess?” San sighs out. He assumes Yunho was big, since there was no way they’d let themselves regress without anyone to take care of them. He knew that Yunho, as the eldest little, would’ve been more responsible than that.

Yunho finds he can’t find the words to respond. His head is too overwhelmed with the thought that San just scolded him, and probably mad at him. His head feels fuzzy, and his throat constricts as he feels tears bubbling in his eyes.

“Y-Yunnie…” He cuts off his sentence with his choked off sobs. San drops his bag at the door and rushes over to the little, comforting him and rocking him gently as he sniffs quietly.

“Oh no, I’m sorry Yunnie, Sannie-hyung didn’t realise you were little…” He says quietly. Mingi sets out to cleaning up the living room silently, not wanting to bother papa later on or San with the burden.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to clean it.” San says, cringing at Mingi’s paint covered hands getting on all the toys.

“B-But Minnie wanna help!” He huffs.

“It’s okay princess, you don’t have to. Let Sannie do it, okay?” The little nods. “Plus, we need to get you two cleaned up.” 

As expected, San is met with whines and complaints from both littles. “But don’ need bath, we already clean!” Mingi attempts to argue. San shakes his head, already working on stripping Yunho of his oversized sweater.

“Come on you two, to the bathtub or I’ll tell appa and papa what you did.” The two littles are in the bathroom in roughly ten seconds flat. San can’t help but chuckle at how adorable the pair are together.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew i'm sorry for not updating as often as i said i would, i've been a lil burnt out lately bc of school and needed to take a lil break >< with that being said, i'm ready to start writing again and will be working on my piled up requests asap!
> 
> and as always, feel free to request :)


	27. papa's spa day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hongjoong sends seonghwa off for a spa day, leaving him with their six chaotic littles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> request for @taecallsmenoona !
> 
> i'm sorry it took so long but i hope you like it!

Hongjoong was extremely aware of his “habit” of losing track of time and disappearing for hours in his studio, leaving Seonghwa to take care of the rest of the boys when they happened to regress. And honestly, he found himself feeling incredibly guilty every now and then for having Seonghwa take care of the littles so often - it was no easy task, especially with the likes of mischievous littles like San and Wooyoung. 

So here he was, handing his boyfriend a coupon that took far too much effort to get his hands on.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Seonghwa raises a brow, reading the cursive writing on the spa coupon Hongjoong had given him. 

“What do you think?” Hongjoong teasingly rolls his eyes. “Take a day off. The resort has spas and saunas and stuff like that, you really need it-” 

“In that case, I think you need it more than I do, Joong.” He attempts to hand him back the coupon, but Hongjoong just shakes his head, pushing his hand away. 

“But the boys-” Seonghwa attempts to argue.

“They’ll be fine, I promise.” 

Seonghwa sighs, reconsidering the offer. In all honesty, he felt he needed a break from taking care of the six chaotic littles as well. He pauses for a moment, taking in Hongjoong’s pleading eyes.

“Fine.” He concedes.

═══════☆═══════

Seonghwa swears he has never felt so relaxed in his life. He was currently laying on a massage table, with all the knots in his back being undone by a talented masseuse. He was so relaxed that he didn’t even think about what could be happening back at home.

Meanwhile back at the dorms, Hongjoong couldn’t say things were going as well as he expected them to. Honestly he assumed it’d be a breeze, with the kids in better spirits since he was home with them. But at the moment, he was trying his best to calm down San, who was crying over a plushie that Wooyoung had stolen from him. Meanwhile, the other littles were getting into all sorts of shenanigans that Hongjoong just couldn’t get started on.

“Wooyoungie, give it back.” Hongjoong sternly tries to reason with the little, but Wooyoung protectively keeps the stuffie locked in his arm, furiously shaking his head.

“Is mine!” Wooyoung protests.

“Woo, we don’t yell, do we?” Hongjoong scolds him. “And it’s not yours. Give it back to Sannie or you’ll be getting a timeout young man.” The threat of punishment seemed to work, because Wooyoung instantly plops the stuffie back into San’s lap, who instantly stops crying and cuddles it.

Hongjoong sighs in relief, rubbing his temples. Just when he thinks he’s put one fire out, he hears cries from the other side of the living room.

“Yunnie?” He finds the little with Jongho and Mingi, cuddled into Mingi’s neck who does his best to console him.

“What happened?” Hongjoong soothingly pets Yunho’s faded pink hair, directing the question to the other littles since Yunho seems to be too upset to say anything.

“Yunnie crying.” Mingi huffs in slight annoyance, but still protectively keeps an arm around him.

Well thank you captain obvious, Hongjoong thinks.

“Yunnie tiny.” Yeosang offers.

“Oh…” Hongjoong takes Mingi’s place in comforting the little, who still cries softly. “Is our baby Yunho feeling smaller today?” 

“W-Wan’ papa!” Yunho manages to get out. Hongjoong thought it was funny - when Hongjoong wasn’t here the littles wanted him at home, but when he was here, they wanted Seonghwa.

“Papa will be back home soon.” Hongjoong reassures him. “Promise.” 

“P-Pinky?” Yunho looks up at him with hopeful eyes and the cutest pout Hongjoong has ever seen.

“Pinky promise.” Hongjoong links his finger with Yunho’s. The reassurance seems to have calmed Yunho down a little bit, as his tears stop flowing. 

“Appa, nap.” The pink haired little mumbles, yawning.

After putting Yunho into a diaper and tucking him to bed, Hongjoong goes back to the living room to tend to the other littles. He hopes the other four littles have all calmed down a bit more now - seeing Yunho cry would’ve put them on edge - but of course, that doesn’t seem to be the case. 

“W-Where papa go?” Mingi asks Hongjoong with a pout.

“Papa’s taking a little break, Gi.” Hongjoong says. “Just like you guys need to be tiny sometimes, papa needs to take a break too.” He explains.

“O-Our fault?” San asks quietly, just so Hongjoong barely catches it. “W-We give appa stress?” The other littles look up at Hongjoong expectantly. 

“Oh, Sannie…” Hongjoong comfortingly pets the pouting littles’ hair. “Not at all, my precious one. Papa loves you all so much, and he’d love to be here with you. Papa works a lot for us, so he just needs a break. Understand?” The littles all nod. 

“Anyway, I think it’s time for lunch. What do you guys think?” The littles all clap excitedly. Hongjoong seats the littles in their respective chairs and high chairs when they hear the click of the front door opening.

“Papa’s home!” They hear a familiar warm voice call out. 

“Papa!” The kids simultaneously call out. The littles in the chairs hop out and stumble over to the doorway, while Hongjoong has to help the smaller littles out of their high chairs. Eventually, they’re all cuddling Seonghwa, who does his best to hug them all back.

“How was the resort?” Hongjoong asks, giving him a peck on the cheek.

“I’ve never felt better. Thank you, Joong.” Seonghwa smiles. “And how are my babies?” 

“Missed papa!” Wooyoung exclaims, clinging to Seonghwa’s arm with a death grip. The others nod in agreement.

“Papa missed you too, little ones.” Seonghwa smiles at them lovingly. “Where’s Yunho?” 

“He was feeling smaller today so I put him down for a nap.” Hongjoong says. “You’re just in time for lunch.” 

Seonghwa swears he’s never had a day as relaxing as this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooyoung just confirmed his tattoo how are we feeling,,,,


	28. sangie's ouchie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeosang wants to work harder, but gets hurt and frustrated in the process

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @atzys ! i'm sorry it took so so long but i hope you like it!

Yeosang had made it his own personal goal to work harder than ever before for their new comeback. In their new title song, he had his own small dance break after the chorus, which he aimed to nail down to perfection.

Yeosang always felt he had to work harder whenever he’d draw the short end of the straw in terms of the group’s lines and centre time. He figured if he worked harder and improved his skills, he’d eventually get more lines, killing parts and centre time in their choreographies.

Finally, after hours of doing the choreography about a hundred times, Hongjoong calls for the end of practice. Yeosang guesses it must be around 10pm now. The boys all begin gathering their things, getting ready to head back to the dorms, but Yeosang stays put, fiddling with the speaker.

“Yeosang, are you coming?” Hongjoong asks.

“I think I’m gonna practice a bit more, hyung. I’ll be back soon.” 

“Alright, text me if you need anything. Don’t overwork yourself.” He says before closing the door of the practice room. Yeosang thought it was ironic, since he knew Hongjoong would be heading off to his studio to work more anyway.

Yeosang lets out a heavy sigh, mentally preparing himself to get up and dance again. He turns on his part of the song on the speaker, before forcing himself up.

After repeating his part a few times, he’s already burnt out. He pants in exhaustion, frustrated that he still couldn’t get his part quite right. Yeosang knew he could do better than this, it was just his body protesting against his movements that was holding him back.

The exhaustion from practicing before takes its toll on him. He’s in the middle of doing his floorwork part once again when he ungracefully bangs his knee into the hard wood of the practice room floor. He hisses in pain and clutches his knee.

“O-Ouch!” He cries out. Before he can stop them, tears start streaming from his eyes. 

The pain is still sharp and throbbing in his knee five minutes later. He thought it would’ve subsided by now, but right now his thoughts are extremely cloudy and he can’t focus on anything but the pain.

“A-Appa!” He cries out, sobbing on the floor and still holding onto his knee. Nothing.

After a few moments he repeats it louder. “A-Appa, Sangie ouchie!” He sobs.

Merely moments later, Hongjoong is bursting through the door of the practice room, scrambling over to where Yeosang is on the floor.

“Oh no my poor baby, what happened?” He asks with concern and sympathy.

“K-Knee, bang an’ ouch!” He manages to get out between his sobs.

“It’s okay little one…” Hongjoong holds him and shushes him until he’s calmed down. “Can appa see your knee?” 

He gently coaxes Yeosang to let him roll up the leg of his jeans, revealing his swollen knee. It was red, and definitely would be bruising later.

“A-Appa, kiss”. Yeosang sniffles quietly.

“You want me to kiss it better?” Yeosang nods.

Hongjoong leans down to press a small peck to Yeosang’s knee.

“Better?” Yeosang nods, looking more relaxed now as his tears start to dry.

“Does Sangie wanna go home now?” The boy nods once again. Hongjoong notices his prolonged silence, and the way his thumb finds its way to his lips.

“Is Sangie extra tiny right now?” 

“Mmh.” Yeosang lets out a small whine, shyly burying his face into Hongjoong’s neck. He loves his appa’s scent, he thinks. Appa smells like home and cuddles and kisses. He could probably fall asleep right now.

He doesn’t realise that he finds himself doing just that.

═══════☆═══════

Hongjoong end up carrying Yeosang all the way back to the dorms, ignoring the strange looks he got from the KQ employees and people on the streets on the walk back. 

He fiddles with his keys and the doorknob for a bit before the door to the dorm opens. He’s greeted with a tired looking Seonghwa behind the door.

“You’re back earlier than usual.” He points out. His gaze shifts to the boy in Hongjoong’s arms. “Is Yeosang okay?” 

Hongjoong nods. “He hurt his knee while practicing. He regressed while he was by himself, but luckily I was in the studio next door.” He says.

“Poor baby.” Seonghwa tuts quietly.

Yeosang stirs, whining in complaint as he tiredly rubs his eyes. He looks up at Seonghwa with bleary eyes, making grabby hands towards the older. 

“Hey, little one.” Seonghwa coos gently, taking the blonde haired boy into his arms and carrying him inside to his room. “Did Sangie get a little ouchie today?” 

Yeosang nods in agreement while yawning. His lips naturally form a little pout when his mouth closes.

“You’re so brave for me, little prince. Sangie’s so good and works so hard. Appa and papa love our talented little baby so much.” Seonghwa continues softly while tucking Yeosang into his warm blankets with his favourite stuffie.

“Mm?” Yeosang makes a sound as though asking for confirmation.

“Of course little one.” Seonghwa presses a small kiss to his forehead. “You’ve worked hard today. It’s time to go to sleep and get some rest now, okay?” Yeosang nods in agreement.

“I love you, little angel.” Seonghwa watches the boy with love and adoration as he falls asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to request~


	29. tiny jongho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho feels insecure regressing to babyspace, but his appa, papa and sangie help him realize it's okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the requests @mytinyrosestay and @BabieJongho ! i hope you guys like it <3

It was known within the dorms that Jongho would usually regress to a younger age more often than the other members, so much so that he was now known as the “baby” of their family. But it hadn’t always been like that.

In fact, at first, Jongho had a lot of insecurities when regressing to babyspace. He couldn’t deny that the other members’ teasing was a huge reason why he felt too insecure to regress. This led to him always insisting that he was a big boy, just like his brothers, when in reality he just wanted to be babied by everyone.

═══════☆═══════

The teasing first started when Mingi and Wooyoung were playing with their toy planes in the living room, while Jongho was comfortably cuddled up in Hongjoong’s embrace, peacefully sucking on his paci. He couldn’t help but watch with fascination as his brothers flew the brightly coloured planes through the air with such glee in their faces. He lets out a whine to get Hongjoong’s attention, then points towards Mingi and Wooyoung.

“Does Jjongie wanna play with Woo and Gi?” Jongho nods excitedly and makes grabby hands towards them.

Hongjoong picks up Jongho and gently places him down on the mat next to Wooyoung and Mingi, who look at him with a puzzled look. 

“Give him a plane too, boys.” Hongjoong looks at the pair expectantly.

“But Jjongie can’t play with us!” Wooyoung says as though it’s obvious. 

“And why not?” Hongjoong asks sternly.

“Jjongie’s baby. We only play with big boys.” Mingi says.

Hongjoong frowns. “Just because Jjongie is younger today, it doesn’t mean you don’t play with him. Now give him a plane or you won’t be seeing them for the rest of the day.” 

When Hongjoong’s finally convinced Wooyoung and Mingi to let Jongho play with them, Jongho’s crying. Hongjoong assumes he’s upset for being excluded just because he’s younger. Before Hongjoong can reach out to comfort him, he stutters something out.

“N-Not baby! Jjongie big boy!” He coughs out through his tears.

“Jjongie, it’s okay-” 

“M’ not baby!” He repeats insistently.

“It’s okay Jjongie, you’re a big boy and appa loves you so much.” The confirmation that he isn’t a baby seems to calm Jongho down a bit, as he falls back into Hongjoong’s comforting embrace. His tears start to dry on Hongjoong’s collar. 

“You two, don’t think you’re not in trouble.” Hongjoong says to Mingi and Wooyoung before putting Jongho down for a nap.

═══════☆═══════

Seonghwa and Hongjoong hear the familiar cries from Jongho’s bedroom, indicating that the little was awake from his nap.

“I’ll get him.” Hongjoong says.

He enters Jongho’s room quietly, not wanting to startle the little. He turns the light on, seeing the little in his onesie, dried tears on his face. He makes grabby hands towards Hongjoong.

“Hey, little one...” Hongjoong reaches into the crib, picking Jongho up. “Did you sleep well?” Jongho nods, rubbing the sleepiness away from his eyes.

“You woke up just in time, papa’s making a bottle for Sangie, so he can make you one too.” 

Jongho lets out a sound of protest. “‘M not a baby.” He says. “Jjongie can eat big boy food, don’ need bottle.” His words are somewhat garbled, as though he’s still in babyspace but still trying his best to use his words.

Hongjoong sighs, carrying him over to the living room. “It’s okay to be tiny, little one.” Jongho shakes his head. 

“Morning, little one.” Seonghwa smiles at Jongho with two filled bottles in hand. Jongho scrunches his nose when he sees them. 

“Jongie!” Yeosang squeals in excitement from the living room sofa when he sees his favourite brother. Hongjoong puts Jongho down next to Yeosang, who places a happy kiss on his cheek. Yeosang makes grabby hands towards Seonghwa who brings the bottles over to where the two littles are seated.

“Don’ wan’ bottle.” Jongho pouts.

“Why?” Yeosang and Seonghwa ask at the same time.

“Jongie big boy! Don’ need bottle!” He huffs and crosses his arms, sick of repeating the same thing over and over again.

“Oh, but darling”, Seonghwa says. “Sangie’s a big boy too but he still finishes his bottles.” Seonghwa gives Yeosang a look, as though telling him to play along.

“Sangie big boy!” Yeosang nods in agreement.

Jongho figures they’re right. Yeosang was a big boy, and he was having a bottle, so what would be the harm, right? He reluctantly accepts the bottle when Hongjoong presses it against his lips, the two littles silently and peacefully finishing their milk.

When they’re done, Yeosang has practically fallen asleep. Hongjoong and Seonghwa knew they’d have to praise him later for helping Jongho with his bottle. Seonghwa goes to put Yeosang to bed, leaving Hongjoong and Jongho together on the couch.

“Darling, you know it’s okay to be tiny, right?” Hongjoong decides this will be the best opportunity to let Jongho regress as young as he wants to.

Jongho shakes his head. “If Jjongie baby, then hyungs won’ play with Jjongie…” He mumbles quietly. 

“That’s not true. Your hyungs love you just as much when you’re tiny.” Hongjoong says. “And appa and papa will make sure they’ll play with you, okay?” 

Jongho nods shyly, burying his head into Hongjoong’s chest. Seonghwa returns shortly after, cooing at the sight he’s met with.

“Does Jjongie wanna go to sleep?” Hongjoong asks softly. He mumbles something incoherent in response.

“Too small for words?” He nods into Hongjoong’s chest. “Wanna sleep with appa and papa?” He nods once again.

He’s barely aware that he’s being carried to Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s room, too tired and lost in his cloudy headspace. 

“We love you, our little baby.” He hears before drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> might write hongjoong and seonghwa as littles soon, thoughts? 👀 (and feel free to drop possible ideas for it too!)


	30. princess mingi's birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> little mingi has a pink princess themed birthday party!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday to our best smiley boy mingi <3
> 
> thank you for the req @Hae anon!

Mingi’s birthday was coming up. Traditionally, the boys would have two parties when it was one of the boy’s birthdays - one for when the member was big, and one for when he was little. This time round, Hongjoong and Seonghwa had asked Mingi to think of a theme that he wanted for his parties.

Mingi remembers when the boys were out on a shopping trip, and he saw something that piqued his interest and gave him an idea for his party. He stopped in his tracks when he saw a princess costume hanging from one of the store’s racks. There was a female model on the front of the plastic cover wearing the sparkly pink dress, but it didn’t bother Mingi at all. 

“Find something, buddy?” Seonghwa retraces back to where Mingi is staring at the dress with stars in his eyes. Mingi closes his mouth that dropped open in fascination and shakes his head, holding his papa’s hand and letting him guide him around the rest of the store.

He isn’t entirely sure why he didn’t open up about his finding at the store. A part of him was worried that the other members would judge him for wanting a princess themed birthday party and wanting to wear a pretty pink dress. Of course, both the members and fans knew that Mingi loved to be called princess, but it seemed to be some sort of a running gag to them.

Mingi decides he’ll just stick to whatever the members want to do for his birthday.

═══════☆═══════

“Gi, have you decided what you want to do for your birthday party yet?” Hongjoong asks the little.

“Nuh uh.” Mingi shakes his head, pouting as he thinks of what he truly wanted. He imagines how happy he’d be with a birthday party full of pink decorations and a sparkly pretty pink dress.

“Well, appa got you something since you can’t decide.” Mingi perks up in interest, expectantly looking up at Hongjoong. 

Hongjoong reveals what Mingi assumes to be a silk blue superhero cape. “Do you like it?” 

Mingi’s pout only grows as he looks at the cape. He shakes his head. He appreciates his appa’s effort but he truly didn’t want a superhero themed birthday party. He mumbles something incoherently under his breath.

“What’s that, bub?” 

“Gi wan’ be a princess…” He says only a tiny bit louder, but Hongjoong still manages to catch it. 

“A princess?” Hongjoong repeats. Mingi sucks in a breath and nods, preparing for any harsh words of judgement that may follow.

“You just needed to ask, Mingi. Appa and papa can make it happen.” He smiles at the little. Mingi’s eyes widen in excitement.

“Appa give Minnie princess dress?” He asks.

“Of course, if that’s what Minnie wants.” Mingi nods eagerly.

“M-Minnie want princess party! Wif’ pretty pink dress and crown and pink cake!” He rambles out in excitement. Hongjoong can’t help but giggle in adoration at how adorable Mingi is expressing his excitement with his gummy smile.

═══════☆═══════

The boys work hard to make Mingi’s birthday wish come true. Hongjoong goes to a party store with Seonghwa to purchase every pink item they can possibly find for the birthday party. While they’re at it, they find a pink dress and glittery crown for him as well, just as he wanted. 

Meanwhile back at home, Wooyoung is doing his best to put together a recipe and baking Mingi’s pink cake, while the rest of the 99s and Jongho try to help wherever they can (that mostly includes licking the cake batter and frosting, earning a cheeky slap on the hand from Wooyoung). 

But then where was Mingi? The boys made sure that Mingi would be in his studio for at least a few hours to allow them time to prepare for the surprise party.

When Seonghwa and Hongjoong return home with large bags of pink, the cake is all finished. It’s a pastel pink, with eccentric frosting decorations and “Happy Birthday, Princess Mingi” written in darker pink icing. Seonghwa and Hongjoong praise and coddle Wooyoung so much that he ends up regressing.

While preparing for the party, all of the members end up regressing as well. Seonghwa and Hongjoong didn’t mind. In fact, Mingi would probably like it more if his members were regressed with him. But it definitely meant there’d be more work for them. It was hard enough setting up a whole party without Wooyoung and San playing tug of war with the pink tablecloth. But finally, they're finished.

The universe must have blessed them, because merely a few minutes later, Mingi is walking through the front door. His eyes widen, adjusting to the explosion of pink before his eyes.

“Happy birthday, Mingi!” They all exclaim.

“F-For Gi?” He asks happily.

“Of course, Gi. We love you so much.” Hongjoong and Seonghwa hug him. “Here you go.” Seonghwa hands him the plastic packet with the dress he was longingly staring at the other day.

Mingi rushes off to his room with Seonghwa to help him put on his new dress. When he reemerges, the members “ooh!” in excitement. Mingi looks stunning in the glittery sequin dress, they think.

“Mingi pretty!” Yeosang exclaims.

“He’s right.” Hongjoong smiles. 

“Pretty princess Minky?” Mingi looks up at his appa expectantly.

“Yes, you’re our pretty princess Minky.” Hongjoong confirms with a smile.

Mingi doesn’t remember why he was worried about being judged at all. He knew he’d have to thank the members for making this happen when he was big again. But for now, he just wanted to be a pretty princess and eat lots of cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mingi wore a tiara in his birthday vlive and i absolutely melted omg,,
> 
> feel free to leave reqs <3


	31. yeosang's accident + jealous jjongie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeosang starts regressing after an accident at practice. jongho doesn't appreciate all the extra attention yeosang is getting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @Erbyrose! thank you for all the details, and sorry if there are any details missing ><
> 
> whew this may be the longest thing i've written for this series 😳 i hope you all like it!
> 
> possible warnings for this chapter: hospitalization, diaper accidents, hint towards neglect, description of a panic attack

The members weren’t sure how it happened, it all happened so quickly.

One minute, the members were cruising through the choreography, all in perfect sync and executing the moves to perfection. The next, one of them was groaning in pain on the floor.

“Yeosang!” Hongjoong rushes over to where Yeosang is hissing in pain, holding his leg. 

“I-I’m fine.” Yeosang manages to get out, though his voice is strained and he’s very clearly under an extreme amount of pain.

“Let me see it.” Hongjoong reasons.

“N-No.” Yeosang does his best to move, but he can’t seem to get up. His leg stays locked in place. 

“Come on, we’re getting you checked out.” 

“I told you, I’m fine-” 

“No. End of discussion.” Hongjoong says. The boys knew there was no point arguing against him when he made up his mind.

═══════☆═══════

The boys watch with concern as Yeosang is helped into the back of an ambulance van. Jongho and Yunho had regressed during the whole ordeal of calling the ambulance and helping Yeosang out of the building, stressed as to whether or not Yeosang would be okay.

“W-Wan’ Yeosangie-hyung! Yeosangie hurt!” Yunho cries out. Tears threaten to spill from his eyes as he cuddles further into Seonghwa’s chest, who has a protective arm around him. He doesn’t want to see Yeosang being helped into the van - it just makes him feel worse.

“Wan’ go with Sangie-hyung!” Jongho agrees.

Hongjoong shakes his head. “Sangie-hyung needs a lot of rest, my angels. We’ll be there at the hosp- um, special doctor, when he wakes up. He’ll be okay, I promise.” 

“Promise?” The two littles synchronize.

“Mhm. I promise.” Hongjoong holds out his pinky and links it with theirs as a further reassurance.

═══════☆═══════

Jongho and Yunho had rushed into Yeosang’s room when they arrived at the hospital, with Hongjoong and Seonghwa chasing after them. Seeing Yeosang in a hospital bed had just made the two littles more upset.

The boys have now been at the hospital for about an hour, with Yeosang still peacefully sleeping in his bed. The boys were told he was given painkillers for his fracture and that his leg would be able to heal properly as long as he didn’t overexert himself.

“Sangie-hyung, wake up”. Yunho sniffles. Even though appa and papa had explained to him that Yeosang would be fine, he missed his hyung. He just wanted to see Yeosang bright and happy so that he’d know for sure that he would be okay.

“Let him rest, darling. Yeosangie-hyung will be so happy to see you when he wakes up, we just have to wait until then.” Seonghwa explains.

Meanwhile, a doctor was speaking to San, Mingi and Wooyoung about Yeosang’s condition and recovery.

“He should take about six weeks to heal, as long as there’s no pressure on the leg. He shouldn’t be stressed under any circumstances.” The doctor says. The boys nod in understanding.

When the doctor leaves the room, the boys relay the information back to the members who were looking after Yeosang.

“What if Yeosang regresses?” Mingi speaks up. “It helps Jongho and Yunho to relieve stress. It might not work for him, but it’s worth trying, isn’t it?” The rest of the members look at Hongjoong and Seonghwa expectantly. Of course, if Yeosang were to regress, it’d be up to them to look after them. 

“If you guys aren’t fine with it, then-” 

“No, it works.” Hongjoong says. “Seonghwa and I are fine with taking care of him if he does regress. Having one more little probably won’t make a huge difference for us.”

The rest of the member’s faces light up, even though they weren’t sure if Yeosang would agree to it.

═══════☆═══════

“I don’t know.” Yeosang is awake now, sitting upright in his bed. He looks at the members one by one, all looking hopeful after they explained their idea for him. He pauses, taking a moment to think about it.

Jongho and Yunho, the two littles of the group, always looked so happy when they regressed. Plus Seonghwa and Hongjoong were always there to take care of them.

“I’ll think about it.” He concludes. The members all nod in understanding.

The members give him space as he falls back asleep. 

═══════☆═══════

Yeosang wakes up once again, with his head feeling fuzzy, though not in the sense that he feels sick. Everything suddenly seems too bright, too overwhelming. He can’t quite process his surroundings, his thoughts only occupied on this unfamiliar floaty feeling he was experiencing.

His eyes focus next to his bedside, where Seonghwa looks at him wide eyed.

“Yeosang? Are you okay?” 

He tries his best to get something out, he really does. He’s not sure why he can’t get any words out, like they’re stuck in his throat. All he can get out is a small whine, before his eyes starts to well up with tears.

It finally clicks in Seonghwa’s head.

“Yeosang, are you little?” Yeosang looks confused, but nods slightly nonetheless.

“It’s okay, papa’s here...” Seonghwa says soothingly, petting his hair. Yeosang leans into the touch, adoring the feeling of Seonghwa’s fingers running through his hair. Seonghwa fishes out a lilac paci he kept in his pocket in case Yunho or Jongho regressed. Yeosang looks at it with longing, then looks at Seonghwa. Seonghwa complies with Yeosang’s wordless command, and feeds the paci into his mouth. Yeosang accepts it, sucking on it peacefully. His eyes start to droop again slowly, falling back to sleep.

Hongjoong walks into the room, puzzled at what he sees. Seonghwa presses a finger to his lips and gives Yeosang a loving smile, still stroking his hair softly until he’s certain the boy has fallen asleep.

“He’s little?” Hongjoong whispers quietly. Seonghwa nods.

═══════☆═══════

Needless to say, since the day Yeosang first regressed, things had changed in the dorm. With three regressors in the dorm, the other boys had much more responsibility, especially with Yeosang.

They found that Yeosang would regress to a very young age and go nonverbal everytime he regressed. At first it was difficult to understand what the boy needed and wanted while he was little, but slowly but surely, they were getting the hang of it.

Yeosang’s relationship with Jongho and Yunho, the other two littles, had changed as well. In some ways, it changed for better, but in other ways, it was worse.

Yunho loved having a new little brother to take care of and play with, even if Yeosang couldn’t exactly reciprocate. Out of all the members, he had stepped up the most, whether that meant helping Hongjoong and Seonghwa make Yeosang’s bottles or helping clean up whenever he made a mess with his toys.

On the other hand, Jongho wasn’t taking it so well. He didn’t think it was fair. He was so used to being the only baby in the house, and now all of that attention was being redirected to the new baby. Everyone would always be fussing over him, especially Seonghwa. The new baby was taking his papa away! Jongho thought. Papa wouldn’t even tuck him into bed or sing him a lullaby these days, it was always one of the other members.

Jongho, Seonghwa and Yeosang were currently in the living room, with the other members at the studio recording lines. Seonghwa said he wanted to spend some time with the two littles that were regressed today.

“Jongie, could you watch your brother for a few minutes? Papa has to make a bottle for him.” 

Jongho pouts, but nods anyway.

Yeosang giggles happily, being left with his older brother. He loved Jongho lots! He reaches out to hold Jongho’s finger, but the other little slaps his hand away.

“No! Stop it!” Jongho yells in frustration. 

Yeosang’s bottom lip starts to quiver as he bursts out crying, almost shrieking for his papa. Seonghwa rushes over, questioning how everything went downhill so quickly.

“Oh no Sangie, you’re okay my precious…” Seonghwa picks up the little and gently cradles him. “You’re okay, appa’s here. What happened, little one?” Yeosang sniffs and points towards Jongho.

“Jongho, what happened?” Seonghwa tries to ask calmly. It comes out more aggressive than he intended.

“Sangie touch me, his fault!” He argues.

“Jongho, you don’t treat your baby brother like that. He’s sensitive.” Jongho has no idea what that word means, so he just crosses his arms and huffs angrily.

“No attitude, young man. Come on, corner, for fifteen minutes.” Jongho angrily trudges over to the corner of the living room, arms still crossed, and sits down. He’s fuming at how Seonghwa instantly goes back to coddling Yeosang, who’s still crying.

═══════☆═══════

It’s been two hours.

Two hours, and Jongho is still sitting in the timeout corner. 

Jongho doesn’t entirely have a solid concept of time when he’s little, but he’s almost certain that fifteen minutes isn’t this long. He isn’t sure of how long it’s been since Seonghwa and Yeosang went back to Yeosang’s room. Even so, he wouldn’t dare get out of the timeout corner until papa told him to.

Jongho felt dirty as well. His diaper was damp, and papa wasn’t here to change it for him. He had dried tears on his face from the past two hours, fresh ones threatening to take their place. He tries to remember what appa tells him to do when he feels like this - breathe in and out.

He takes a shaky breath in and out, but it doesn’t help. He just feels sick.

Jongho isn’t conscious of how fast or slow he may be breathing, and the dull pain of his head pounding doesn’t help either. He curls up in a ball in the corner, his chest feeling horribly constricted as tears flood down his face.

“Jongho? Jongho!” He isn’t sure if he’s imagining it. He wipes his tears with his fist and looks up to see Hongjoong, and the rest of the members standing above him.

“God, what happened…” Hongjoong mumbles and picks him up, checking his diaper. “He needs a change.” Hongjoong says to San, handing Jongho to him. San nods, trailing off with Jongho to his room.

“Where the hell are Seonghwa and Yeosang?” Mingi asks. Normally Hongjoong would scold him for swearing in front of a little, but right now he couldn’t care less. And he was thinking the same thing. How could Seonghwa leave Jongho like this?

Hearing the noise outside, Seonghwa assumes the members are back. “Welcome back-” He stops himself when he sees the member’s angered expressions. His heart sinks, immediately knowing what he did wrong.

“Park Seonghwa, what is wrong with you-” 

“I’m so sorry, I was occupied with Yeosang and I lost track of time-” 

“That’s no excuse for neglecting a child, Seonghwa!” Hongjoong raises his voice. Mingi, Yunho and Wooyoung look on at the scene with fear. Hongjoong hardly ever got mad like this.

“You’re right.” Seonghwa says calmly. “I’ll do everything to make it up to him. I’m sorry, to all of you as well.” He looks down, too overcome with guilt to meet Hongjoong’s gaze. Hongjoong shakes his head, pushing past him to go check on Jongho.

Hongjoong returns to the living room shortly with Jongho in his arms. Jongho’s eyes widen when he sees Seonghwa, hiding his face into Hongjoong’s chest.

“Hey, little one-” Seonghwa attempts to approach him, but the little just fusses and whines, almost at the verge of crying. Seonghwa also feels like crying at that moment, the moment he sees that his baby is scared of him.

“Baby bear, you’ve had a long day. How about we go to sleep with cuddles from appa and papa, hm?” Jongho pauses, but nods shortly after.

It takes a lot of consoling from Hongjoong and patience from Seonghwa, but finally, Jongho falls asleep in Seonghwa’s arms. There’s an awkward silence in the air once Jongho’s peaceful breaths fill the air.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you.” Hongjoong mumbles.

“Don’t apologize. I deserved it.” Seonghwa says. “I shouldn’t have left him alone for that long. I’ve been so focused on Yeosang that I’m not giving enough attention to our two other babies.” 

Hongjoong nods, not saying anything else. They both watch the youngest little with love and adoration with his small subconscious pout, as he snuggles closer to Seonghwa. At the end of the day, he’d always be their little baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, this hurt to write,,, someone please give jongho the whole entire world
> 
> (as always feel free to request! also writing seongjoong as littles now!)


	32. tiny appa and papa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the rest of the members suggest that hongjoong and seonghwa start regressing as well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the requests @BabieJongho and @shy anon !! 
> 
> this is my first time writing seongjoong as littles, i hope you guys like it ><

“Remember that time Wooyoung hid Hongjoong’s laptop for the whole day just because he wanted attention?” San’s statement earns laughs from all of the members, except for Hongjoong.

“That wasn’t funny!” He huffs. “I got no work done that day!” 

“Yeah, well you end up giving me the attention I wanted anyway.” Wooyoung snickers.

There’s a brief pause before San turns his gaze to Hongjoong and Seonghwa. “Have you two ever thought of trying it?”

“Hm?” 

“Regressing. You should try it at least once, right?” 

“I don’t know-” Hongjoong interrupts himself to think about it realistically. It is stressful to keep a balance between his everyday life and taking care of the littles - it’d be nice to see what it’d be like in the other position. 

“Who would take care of us if we were to regress?” Seonghwa asks hesitantly. Surely the boys didn’t want to take care of them. He hardly trusted them to take care of themselves.

“We will, of course!” Yunho chimes in. “Look, I know you might not trust us”, he immediately says after seeing the pair’s unimpressed faces. “But since we all regress so much, we know how littles should be taken care of.” 

He did have a point. 

“We’ll think about it.” Is all Hongjoong says before the conversation shifts to another topic.

═══════☆═══════

“You’re thinking about what San said, aren’t you?” 

Hongjoong hates how well Seonghwa knows him. The conversation had happened hours ago, but what they had spoken about for barely a few minutes still lingered on Hongjoong’s mind.

“Joong, you know if you want to regress I’ll be here for you, okay?” 

“Likewise.” Hongjoong says, snuggling closer to his boyfriend. “How about you? Don’t you want to do it?” 

“I’m fine with still being the mother.” Seonghwa chuckles. Hongjoong hums, yawning as the exhaustion from their long day finally catches up with him. 

“Get some rest.” Seonghwa says quietly. “Goodnight, I love you.” 

“Love you too, Hwa.” 

═══════☆═══════

Nobody thought Seonghwa would be the one to regress first.

“Quick papa, we need to save the princess from the tower!” San flies around a Toothless plush toy around the plastic toy castle Seonghwa and Hongjoong had spent hours building for the littles. Seonghwa follows suit and plays along, letting out small roars and holding his Lightfury toy in the air. Jongho watches the two dragons with fascination and excitement, while Hongjoong watches them all with nothing but love and adoration.

San makes a crash sound as he makes his dragon collide with the pink castle. “Oh no, we didn’t save the princess in time!” He exclaims.

“But Hwahwa wan’ save princess!” 

All eyes turn to Seonghwa. His voice is higher, pouty even, and he looks back at them all with dewy wide eyes. He has no idea why everyone is staring at him.

“Why papa talk like that?” Jongho has now completely lost interest in the dragons, instead looking at Seonghwa as though he was some sort of foreign creature. 

Hongjoong instantly knew what was happening. He joins the trio on the floor, facing San and Jongho in particular.

“Well, papa- erm, I mean hyung, is small right now. Just like Sannie and Jongie have to be small sometimes, Hwa-hyung can’t always be big.” The littles look confused, as does Seonghwa.

“Hwa-hyung?” San questions.

“Yes, papa is Hwa-hyung now because he’s tiny.” It confuses them even more, but they decide to just go with it. Since appa is telling them to, they don’t bother protesting.

Seonghwa scoots over to Hongjoong, clinging to his arm. He speaks in a tiny voice, so quiet that no one can hear him except Hongjoong. “Ddeonghwa do something wrong?” 

“Oh, not at all, little one. Do you wanna keep playing with your brothers?” Seonghwa nods with an excited smile creeping on his face.

“Hwa wan’ save princess with Jongie and Sannie!” He says excitedly. San and Jongho couldn’t complain. Honestly they wanted to “save the princess” as well, and they didn’t mind who they did it with.

After an hour of playing some more, the two littles had grown incredibly fond of little Hwa. He was far more soft-spoken and more gentle compared to the other littles, but that was what made him so endearing. He would giggle to himself quietly whenever San or Jongho did something that amused him. Hongjoong’s heart was melting at how adorable and happy Seonghwa looked like this.

Hongjoong knew that with one more little in the house, it was his responsibility to step up.

═══════☆═══════

It takes Hongjoong to be at his absolute breaking point to finally regress.

The group’s comeback was supposed to be just around the corner and he barely had anything to provide. He’s alone in his studio, his limbs aching from being hunched over in one position for so long. His eyes are exhausted from staring at his huge computer screen without any breaks for the last few hours. 

Hongjoong lets out a heavy sigh he had been keeping in, taking off his headphones and letting his head drop onto his keyboard in frustration.

“This is dumb. Don’ like this.” He mumbles to himself quietly. He’s unable to focus on anything, finding that even thoughts and words aren’t coming to him naturally. All he needed right now was a break.

He barely notices that someone has entered the studio, saying his name a few times until they shake him out of his drowsiness.

“Y-Yunnie-hyung…” Hongjoong doesn’t know why he’s crying or why he’s reaching out for the tall male in his incredibly cosy looking hoodie. He just wants to be cuddled and praised right now.

“Oh, Hongjoong… Hey, you’re okay.” It felt strange saying his name without any honorifics, but Yunho assumes Hongjoong wouldn’t want any formalities right now. Yunho pulls Hongjoong into an embrace, the boy calming down straight away when Yunho gently starts rubbing his back. 

“D-Don’ wanna be big! Is too hard!” Hongjoong cries out.

“I know, I know.” Yunho says softly. He makes sure the work on Hongjoong’s computer is saved before they leave. He gently picks Hongjoong up and struggles with the door for a bit, before heading out of the studio.

“You work so hard for us, Joong. It’s time to take a break, hm?” Hongjoong nods in agreement, sniffing softly as he snuggles his head closer to the warmth of Yunho’s chest. Yunho even lets him suck on his thumb for a bit until they get home. 

He quietly opens the door of Hongjoong’s room, not wanting to wake Seonghwa. He shifts the blankets around softly so that Hongjoong is comfortably wrapped up. He watches in adoration as Seonghwa subconsciously reaches out for Hongjoong in his sleep, protectively keeping his arms around him.

“I love you both.” He whispers quietly before going back to his own room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have this idea of joongie being the most misbehaved little despite being the disciplinarian when he's big hehe
> 
> and then we have complete opposite hwa who's just the tiniest most sensible little baby ever 🥺


	33. where do babies come from? (jjongie)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho is dared to ask appa and papa where babies come from

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @GraceJam! i hope you like it <3

“Truth or dare?” Wooyoung asks Jongho.

The littles are all leaning in in the circle formation they were sat in and whispering. They all knew that appa and papa didn’t like them playing this game. It almost always ended in at least two of them arguing or crying over something. They thought the game was just an excuse for the littles (usually Wooyoung) to be mean to the others, or make them do something ridiculous.

“Dare.” Jongho gives him a challenging smile.

“Hmm…” Wooyoung ponders for a moment, then his eyes light up. “I dare you to ask appa and papa where babies come from!” He has to hold himself back from giggling.

Jongho tilts his head in confusion. What was the problem with that? He thinks. That was quite an easy dare compared to the other ones they had been given in the past. Now that he thinks about it, he’s quite curious as to where babies come from too. The rest of the littles all snicker in response to Wooyoung’s dare, and Jongho’s confused expression.

Jongho nods and heads off towards where Seonghwa and Hongjoong are sitting at the dining table. The littles all watch him with fascination, surprised that he was actually doing it. But of course, he had no idea of the implications behind the dare. 

“Appa? Papa?” Jongho pulls on Hongjoong’s sleeve to get his attention.

“Yes, Jjongie?” Hongjoong looks at the little who’s fiddling with his hands.

“Where do babies come from?” 

The couple share the same shocked expression. Giggles can be heard from the living room, where the littles are all watching the scene unfold. 

“W-Well…” Hongjoong looks at Seonghwa for help. 

“You don’t need to worry about that now, little one. Maybe when you’re a bit bigger.” Seonghwa says calmly. Jongho pouts, but nods nonetheless, making his way back to the littles.

“What did they say?” Wooyoung holds back his laughter once again.

“Appa and papa didn’ tell me!” Jongho whines. “But Jjongie wanna know!” 

“You wanna know?” San repeats. Jongho nods. San leans in and whispers something in Jongho’s ear.

“Yucky! Thas’ icky!” Jongho looks at San with disgust. San shrugs. “That’s just how babies are made.” 

═══════☆═══════

Jongho hadn’t been the same since San revealed how babies were really made, and Seonghwa and Hongjoong could tell. Whenever he’s around his appa and papa, he looks at them differently than he usually would. A million questions were running through his head. Were appa and papa doing icky stuff too? Jongho shook his head, trying to get the thought out of his head.

Meanwhile, Hongjoong and Seonghwa were determined to get to the bottom of their baby’s strange behaviour.

“Did you two say something to him?” Of course, San and Wooyoung are the first ones they confront.

“Nope!” The pair synchronize, looking at Hongjoong innocently. Hongjoong raises a brow. He doesn’t believe them.

“You didn’t say anything to him the other day that might have upset him?” He looks at San in particular, knowing he was more likely to crack than Wooyoung.

“Sannie told Jjongie how babies are made”. Wooyoung confesses after a short pause.

“Snitch!” San slaps his arm. 

“Don’t hit your brother!” Hongjoong chides. But it suddenly added up, why Jongho had suddenly come up to him and Seonghwa to ask the age old question. “Sannie, why did you do that? And how do you even know that?” 

“Wooyoungie told me.” He mumbles, in response to both questions. Now it’s Wooyoung’s turn to be annoyed at San for snitching.

“Well boys, it’s a grown-up thing that you two shouldn’t be talking about, especially not to Jjongie. He’s too small to understand that.” 

“Sorry.” The two littles say quietly with matching pouts. 

The next order of business was to fix the mess caused by the boys’ actions.

═══════☆═══════

“Appa and papa have a special story to tell you tonight.” Seonghwa tells Jongho after tucking him into bed. Jongho looks up at them with interest.

“Once upon a time, there were two boys who loved each other very much. They lived with their friend, Jongho.” Hongjoong starts off.

“The two boys really wanted a baby, since they loved each other so much.” Seonghwa continues. “The next day, their friend Jongho felt very tiny.” He says.

“Tiny like Jjongie?” Jongho asks sleepily.

“Yes, just like Jjongie!” Hongjoong confirms.

“Since Jongho was so tiny, he couldn’t take care of himself. That’s when the two boys decided to take care of him, so they became his appa and papa.” Seonghwa says. “That’s when Jongho became their own little baby. He became their baby since appa and papa loved each other, and loved him so much. The end.” Seonghwa smiles when Jongho’s eyes start drooping.

“That’s how babies are made?” He asks.

“Exactly.” Seonghwa smiles. “Babies are made from love.” 

Jongho hums. He looks perfectly content with the explanation. His sleepiness catches up with him, and his eyes flutter shut. The couple can tell he’s fallen asleep when his telltale pout forms on his lips. 

“Goodnight baby, we love you.” The two whisper before kissing either side of his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg,,, thank you so much for 400 kudos!! i'm really surprised that that many people like my story 🥺 honestly my aim with this was to make agere not seem like something weird like so many people think, but as a perfectly normal way to cope with stress. hopefully some people have learned a lil bit more about what regression is!
> 
> also, i'm not doing reqs in any particular order, just what inspires me most ><
> 
> keep them coming ! <3


	34. little joongie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> joong is hard to take care of when he's little, but seonghwa still loves him just as much

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the req @seonghwazz! i hope you like it <3

Having taken care of six littles, sometimes all at once, Seonghwa would confidently say he was a good caregiver. At this point there was hardly anything he couldn’t deal with, especially after he had taken some of what he would consider the most misbehaved littles (also known as the 99 line minus Yunho and Yeosang). 

Despite that, nothing could have prepared him for a certain little Kim Hongjoong.

“Joong-ah, _please_ get in the bathroom. I promise, it’ll only take ten minutes.”

“No, Joongie don’ wanna!” 

“Too bad, you have no choice.” At this point, after trying to reason with him for fifteen minutes, Seonghwa is forced to pick the little up and carry him to the bathroom. Hongjoong starts fussing, whining, kicking and eventually sobbing, but it doesn’t faze Seonghwa. He knows it’s all an act Hongjoong puts on to get what he wants.

“Please sit still Joong, it’ll go by faster if you listen to me.” Seonghwa says while trying to strip Hongjoong of his clothes. Hongjoong is squirming and sobbing even though there aren’t any tears in his eyes.

“But Joongie don’ like bath!” The little cries out.

“I know you don’t, but you’ll be dirty all day if you don’t take a bath.” 

“Joongie don’ need to be clean!” He argues.

“Look at the rest of your brothers. They’ve all taken baths today except for you.” Seonghwa shakes his head, earning a pout from Hongjoong. “It won’t be that bad, I promise. Papa will even give you your special duckie.” 

Hongjoong stops complaining for a moment, his interest now piqued. “Duckie?” Seonghwa nods, revealing a pink rubber duck from the bathroom cabinet.

“Joong wan’ duckie!” Hongjoong says, making grabby hands towards the toy.

“Only if you get in the bath.” Hongjoong considers it for a moment, finally sitting in place and allowing Seonghwa to strip him of the rest of his clothes. He helps him get into the tub that’s already filled with warm water, and hands him the duck.

Hongjoong gets over-excited with the duck and ends up splashing water everywhere, all over Seonghwa and all over the bathroom floor, but Seonghwa can’t complain. Honestly it was a blessing that he even managed to get him in the tub. It’s a struggle to bathe him and wash his hair, but eventually Hongjoong is all clean.

“You’re done!” Seonghwa says happily. In reality he was just as happy as Hongjoong that the bath was over.

“Was Joong good boy?” The younger boy looks up at Seonghwa expectantly while he pats him dry with a towel.

Seonghwa pauses before saying. “Yes, papa’s so proud of you for taking a bath Joong.” Hongjoong grins happily, his cute little eye smile adorning his face. He was a little brat, but Seonghwa still loved the little more than anything.

═══════☆═══════

The rest of the day had passed somewhat peacefully, though Seonghwa had to diffuse an argument where Wooyoung and San were ganging up against Hongjoong over a stuffie. 

With Hongjoong regressed as well, it was even more difficult to take care of the littles, especially when you consider just how fussy Hongjoong was with everything. Thankfully for Seonghwa, Yunho happened to be the only one who didn’t regress today, meaning he had a helping hand.

“No, Joongie don’ want it!” Hongjoong crosses his arms and frowns as Seonghwa presents him with his dinner.

“But Joong-ah, your brothers are having dino nuggies as well.” Seonghwa reasons. Hongjoong shakes his head and pushes his plate away. The other littles watch the familiar scene unfold. They knew that either Hongjoong would throw a tantrum or Seonghwa would convince him to have his nuggets.

“Joong wan’ candies!” Hongjoong says.

“Joong-ah, you can’t have candies for dinner, or you’ll feel icky.” 

“Don’ care! Joong wan’ candies!” He repeats. 

“If Joongie get candies then Woo wants candies too!” Wooyoung interjects.

At this point, Yunho steps in. “Joongie, did you know that only big boys get to eat dino nuggies?” The rest of the littles except for Wooyoung follow his cue and nod in agreement. Hongjoong’s mouth drops open curiously.

“Joongie big boy!” He says.

“Then you should finish your nuggies, right?” Hongjoong nods, taking a nugget in hand and dipping it in sauce. Seonghwa mouths a ‘thank you’ to Yunho.

By the time the littles have finished eating, Hongjoong’s hands are covered in tomato sauce. Seonghwa doesn’t know how it happened, he barely kept his eyes off of him for five minutes. 

“Gosh, Joong…” He mumbles under his breath while using a wet wipe to wipe his hands clean. Hongjoong giggles, enjoying the tickly feeling of the wet wipe on his hands. He figures he’ll have to get his hands dirty more often.

“Okay kids, time to go to bed.” Seonghwa still hasn’t figured out how he’s gonna put them all to bed, so he decides he’ll just wing it.

“It’s okay, I’ve got them. Just look out for Joong.” Yunho says, holding Yeosang and Jongho’s hands.

“Thank you, Yunho. You’re the best.” Seonghwa says with a smile. “Come on Joong, it’s time to go to bed.” 

“But ‘m not sleepy-” He interrupts himself with a yawn.

“Okay, little one.” Seonghwa chuckles, picking him up with ease. Hongjoong doesn’t complain since he’s exhausted from using so much energy all day in his headspace.

It takes longer than usual to tuck Hongjoong into bed since he’s so feisty, but eventually he doesn’t have the energy to protest. The paci he’s given immediately quietens him, his eyes starting to droop.

“Goodnight, little rascal. I love you.” Seonghwa presses a kiss to his head, tucking himself next to him and cuddling him to sleep.

═══════☆═══════

“I’m not that bad when I’m little! You should see yourselves!” Hongjoong pouts.

“Seonghwa-hyung’s clothes were literally soaking when he finished giving you a bath.” San giggles. 

“And I still have tomato sauce on my sweater.” Seonghwa says.

“Also you owe me a new stuffie for ripping apart my last one.” Jongho says from somewhere in the room.

“Admit it, you’re high maintenance.” Wooyoung giggles.

Hongjoong rolls his eyes. “This is what it was like to take care of you guys for the last few months.” He says snarkily. His comment is met with laughs.

“But Joong, we’re glad you’re comfortable enough to regress around us.” Seonghwa smiles.

Hongjoong’s cheeks flush, and he smiles to himself. “Thank you for taking care of me”. He says shyly.


	35. scary movies and pillow forts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the members decide to watch a horror movie, but it's too scary for them and some members end up slipping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the req @fiction_pati, i hope you like it <3

"Oh my god Hongjoong-hyung, can you just  _ pick a movie _ ". 

"Why are we even letting him pick, he falls asleep halfway through anyway!" 

"Ok fine, give me the remote then." 

"No! You're even worse at picking movies." 

After a few more minutes of bickering among all of the members, the remote eventually ends up in Seonghwa's hands, and the cursor lands on a horror movie. Finally, the majority of the members agree to watch it. 

"No way! I'm not watching that." Mingi exclaims. 

"It's 7 against 1. We're watching it." Hongjoong concludes. 

They dim the lights and get cuddled up with their respective partners on the couch once the movie starts. The only sound coming is from the opening of the movie on the TV and the slight rustling of popcorn. 

The movie goes on fine for the first twenty minutes, with no noise except for slight commentary from the members here and there. As expected, eventually, a gruesome death scene comes on, the blood and the screaming quite horrific and graphic.

"J-Joongie?" Seonghwa whispers. Hongjoong feels a tug on his sleeve. 

"Yes, love?" Hongjoong keeps his eyes on the TV. 

"H-Hwa scared." He says in a tiny voice. He doesn't want to disrupt the other members watching the movie. 

"Oh little one, it's okay, we can turn it off-" Hongjoong turns to comfort Seonghwa, but he's cut off by sudden shrieking and crying from someone, and it's not coming from the movie. 

"N-No, Sangie don' like it! S’ s-scawy!" Yeosang is crying, using his hands to hide his face and block his view of the TV. Jongho's next to him, petting his hair and attempting to reassure him. 

Mingi ends up regressing too upon seeing his little brother so distressed. Seeing Yeosang upset stressed him out more than the scary scene playing out in the movie. He cuddles into Yunho to avoid seeing the TV screen and the sight of Yeosang crying, breathing heavily. 

Amongst the chaos, Wooyoung has regressed as well, and of course, that means San is little too. They both yell persistently for the movie to be turned off. 

Hongjoong struggles to find the remote, trying to calm everyone down while he's at it. Jongho finally finds it, and pauses the movie, the room now filled with Yeosang's crying and Wooyoung and San's complaining. 

"Come on guys, calm down, it's okay. The movie's off now." Yunho says softly. Both in and out of little space, Yunho always had a special gift of being able to calm the littles down and make them quiet. Though Yeosang is still crying, the rest of the littles have somewhat calmed down now. 

"Are you okay?" Hongjoong asks Seonghwa. Seonghwa was still quite new to regressing, and only seemed to do it when he was really stressed out or worried, so he was more worried about him. He had been quiet throughout the whole ordeal among the members, so he didn't know what the little was thinking or feeling. Seonghwa nods, bringing his arms around Hongjoong and laying his head on his chest. 

"S-Scary." The rest of the littles somehow manage to hear his quiet little voice, and nod in agreement. 

"Appa's sorry kids. I shouldn't have put on such a grown up movie." Hongjoong sighs. He knew the kids would have trouble sleeping after seeing something like that. Suddenly an idea pops into his head after seeing all the littles so distressed. 

"How about this? We can all sleep in the living room tonight and have a little sleepover!" Any traces of sadness and fear disappear almost instantly, and their eyes light up. 

"S'eepover!" Yeosang squeals excitedly, escaping from Jongho’s embrace to express his excitement. "Sangie want s’eepover!" 

Wooyoung and San repeatedly chant "Sleepover! Sleepover!", and Mingi grins and nods in agreement.

"Okay, but you all have to be on your bestest behaviour, okay?" The littles all nod in unison. 

Jongho helps Hongjoong bring all of their blankets and pillows into the living room and build a fort of sorts. The littles try to help here and there, but end up doing more harm than good, with Yunho, Jongho and Hongjoong having to rebuild it a few times. 

But finally, the large blanket/pillow fort is built and everyone's comfortably settled inside, Hongjoong using his phone torchlight to light up the interior. The littles all huddle around in a circle, giggling excitedly at the prospect of staying up all night with each other. But of course, they secretly knew Hongjoong wouldn’t allow that. 

“Joongie-hyung?” Seonghwa asks quietly. 

“Yes, darling?”

“Can you tell us a story?” 

Hongjoong knew that the story would have to be an incredibly nice one to get the image of the horror movie out of the littles’ heads. 

“Of course.” He pauses to think about it for a moment, the littles staring up at him expectantly.

“Well, once upon a time there was a man who lived on a pirate ship with his seven bestest friends!” Hongjoong starts off. The littles stare at him with fascinated wide eyes as he delves into a long story of adventures and adversities. 

When he finishes the story, the littles are all either dozing off, or falling asleep. Wooyoung and Mingi are practically snoring, Yeosang subconsciously sucks on his thumb in his sleep and San looks up at Hongjoong with droopy eyes. Yunho and Jongho pet his hair and whisper loving words to him to coax him to sleep. Hongjoong’s attention turns to the remaining little.

Seonghwa remains wide awake, staring at Hongjoong with his sparkling innocent cat eyes just as he did when Hongjoong started telling his story.

“Not sleepy, Hwa?” He shakes his head. Seonghwa quietly crawls over to Hongjoong, making himself comfortable and laying his head on Hongjoong’s lap. 

“C-Can Joongie-hyung tell Hwa another story?” He whispers, letting out a small yawn. Hongjoong nods, smiling endearingly at Seonghwa and covering him in a fluffy blanket.

The last thing Seonghwa remembers is falling asleep to the lull of Hongjoong’s soft toned voice telling him a story about a father who loves his baby more than anything.


	36. yeosang's happy day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeosang wakes up extremely cheerful, and has a great day in little space !

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double update!
> 
> whew i literally wrote this in half an hour, i just wanted to write some happy baby yeosang hehe
> 
> thank you for the request @SatanUiAgi <3 i hope you like it!

Hongjoong cringes when he attempts to quietly open the door to Yeosang’s room - waking up Yeosang, both in and out of little space, would always be one of his most dreaded moments of the day. He assumes Yeosang will still be in little space when he wakes up, since he had been in a much younger headspace the night before. Jongho had graciously offered him his crib the night before, so that’s where Yeosang lay, sleeping peacefully and sucking on his paci. Hongjoong felt bad for having to wake him up, but it was nearing 11am. 

“Sangie, it’s time to wake up.” Hongjoong sing-songs. He anxiously holds his breath as Yeosang stirs and whines, pulling his large elephant stuffie closer to his chest and burying his face in it. He starts to mentally prepare himself for the screaming and crying, as it happened almost everytime when Yeosang was woken up in his headspace.

Yeosang opens his eyes blearily and blinks a few times when Hongjoong says his name a few more times and shakes him gently. He gurgles around his paci while he stretches, then looks up at Hongjoong. To Hongjoong’s surprise, he lets out a small giggle and makes grabby hands towards him. Hongjoong obliges and picks him up, making his way to the bathroom. 

And Yeosang still hasn’t cried.

“Someone’s having a good day, huh?” Hongjoong presses a kiss to Yeosang’s cheek. The blonde haired little giggles in response, and as a way of agreement, Hongjoong assumes. 

Hongjoong gets through Yeosang’s morning routine without any hassles. He changes him, helps him brush his teeth and his hair, and even gets him to eat breakfast without any fusses or tantrums. Hongjoong wonders if something got Yeosang so happy.

Seonghwa notices it too. Hongjoong looked far too at peace this morning when with Yeosang, so he knew the younger must have been behaving extremely well. Yeosang lets out a happy noise when he sees Seonghwa at the table, letting out a gibberish word that resembles “Dada!” 

“Hey, my little prince.” Seonghwa smiles as Hongjoong puts the little down on his lap. Yeosang’s eyes light up happily, and he giggles yet again when Seonghwa kisses his forehead. 

Suddenly, something shiny catches his eye.

Yeosang lets out a curious little gasp when he sees a silver necklace around Seonghwa’s neck. What’s that? He thought. He wants to play with it, he thinks. He grabs the chain, curiously tilting his head and giggling at the little jingly noise it makes between his fingers. Does it taste good? Yeosang sucks on the silver chain to test his theory. Seonghwa opens his mouth to protest, but stops when Hongjoong’s hand lands on his shoulder.

“Don’t ruin his happy streak.” He whispers quietly, fondly looking at how excited Yeosang is over the necklace. Eventually, Seonghwa ends up unhooking it, giving it to the little to play with, who is overjoyed.

Eventually the rest of the members find joy in Yeosang’s happiness as well. They all file into the living room one by one, waking up so late since it was an off day. Wooyoung lets out a groggy “good morning”, being the last one to wake up. Yeosang’s attention shifts from the necklace, to his favourite older brother Wooyoung.

“Woo!” He squeals, tapping Seonghwa to be let out of his lap and help him go over to Wooyoung.

“Hi, Yeosangie!” Wooyoung says, matching Yeosang’s excitement despite being drowsy. Seonghwa picks up the little and supports him as he gives Wooyoung a big hug. Yeosang then holds Wooyoung’s cheeks with both hands, pressing a long kiss to the tip of his nose.

“Wow, is Sangie having a good day?” Wooyoung chuckles, ruffling his hair then heading off to the kitchen to make himself breakfast. Yeosang whines again and looks at Seonghwa, who gets the hint and follows him to the kitchen.

Yeosang excitedly watches the whole process of Wooyoung frying eggs, gasping at the sizzling sound they make on the pan. Seonghwa has to hold him back from reaching out and touching the hot pan out of curiosity.

When Wooyoung starts eating, he spoon-feeds Yeosang a bit of the fried eggs since he was gazing at them so longingly. The members laugh at how he scrunches his face in disgust, as though he just ate a sour lemon.

Yeosang’s energy doesn’t dwindle for the rest of the day. Though he doesn’t talk, the members understand just how excited and in high spirits he is. The members indulge in his happiness and do whatever he wants as he communicates through his noises and gestures. They play with him and watch cartoons with him for hours, and not a single tear has been shed for the whole day.

Finally, his eyes started to droop as he lets out a small yawn. His thoughts are cloudier than usual, and he finds it harder to communicate what he wants. It frustrates him. He had been doing so great all day, why couldn’t he just get out what he wanted now? 

The usual nighttime tears start to fall, and the members all fawn over him. Hongjoong and Seonghwa indicate for the members to give him space as he starts to sob, making grabby hands towards the pair. He lets out cries of “appa” and “dada” as he’s carried to his room, sniffing into Seonghwa’s shoulder.

He doesn’t quite process what’s going on, but he feels far better once he’s in bed and Seonghwa and Hongjoong are petting his hair softly, giving him his comfort items and telling him everything’s going to be okay. He knew everything was always going to be okay, as long as he had his appa and papa there to take care of him.


	37. not an update update

hello all! 

first of all, i'm sorry for not updating as frequently as i'd like to. i've been immensely busy with school, and my final exams are coming up soon. 

so with that being said, i won't be able to update for the next few weeks or so since i'll be quite busy >< even so, feel free to leave requests for me to write up when i'm back! and for those whose reqs i still haven't written, i'll get to them once i have time to write again :)

thanks for understanding! <3


	38. joongie's eomma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hongjoong seeks his eomma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the sweet comments last "chapter", i really appreciate it! here's a short lil thing i wrote between my exams while i was stressed out ><
> 
> thank you for the idea of little joong with woosan @Minihong~

Hongjoong couldn’t fathom the workload he had right now. Even in the midst of their new comeback promotions, he couldn’t stop thinking of what he would have to work on for their next album. Normally after the promotional periods for an era were over, the group would have time to rest, but Hongjoong remained hard at work, holed up in his studio.

Finally, after hours of work, he’d decided he’d return home. He clicked his phone on to see it was nearing midnight. He knew Seonghwa probably wouldn’t be awake right now, but he’d still appreciate him coming back home earlier than he usually would. 

Normally Hongjoong’s first instinct would be to ungracefully flop his exhausted form onto the living room sofa, but to his surprise, it was already occupied. He saw the silhouette of a familiar pair of bodies cuddled up to each other, dimly illuminated by the light of the TV playing some drama that didn’t look familiar to Hongjoong.

“Wooyoung? San?” 

The pair looked up at him, not noticing his presence.

“Welcome back, hyung. We can clear out if you’d like-” 

Hongjoong shakes his head, instead joining them and cuddling against San, who’s sitting on the edge of the sofa. He doesn’t have the energy to do anything but let out an exhausted huff, followed by a whine. His mind was too cloudy to fathom anything but San’s warm, comforting scent.

“Is someone feeling small?” San asks quietly. Hongjoong nods, tears springing in his eyes. He can’t do anything but let them flow, starting to wail loudly as he usually did when he fell into his babyspace.

“Shh, shh, you’re okay, your hyungs are here…” 

San gently shifts Hongjoong onto Wooyoung’s lap, knowing his boyfriend would have a surefire way of cheering Hongjoong up, as he always did.

“Hey little one, wanna play peek-a-boo?” Wooyoung asks the little while clapping excitedly. Hongjoong’s cries quieten down to soft whimpers as he tilts his head, watching Wooyoung curiously. He gasps when Wooyoung covers his eyes with his hands.

“W-Where Woo-’yung?” Hongjoong’s bottom lip trembles, on the verge of tears again. San gasps in fake shock as Wooyoung uncovers his eyes, giggling happily. 

“There he is!” San gasps. Hongjoong giggles with Wooyoung, curling his hands up in tiny fists to wipe the stray tears away from his face.

“Hyungs?” Hongjoong babbles out.

“Yes, love?” They both respond in sync.

“W-Wan’ mama…”

The pair look at each other in confusion. Mama? Who was that? They were both perplexed, having no idea who or what Hongjoong was referring to. Maybe it was one of his stuffies?

When they both fail to respond, the waterworks flare up again. Hongjoong lets out cries of “eomma” as he cries into Wooyoung’s chest.

“Shh calm down Joongie, it’s okay, we’ll find eomma.” Wooyoung says softly. “Where is she?” 

Hongjoong makes a series of unintelligible babbles and shrieks, shaking his head furiously. He then squirms in frustration until Wooyoung is forced to stand up. He cradles Hongjoong, softly shushing and rocking him to calm him down, but it still doesn’t do anything to calm the little down. Finally, Hongjoong points towards his bedroom door.

“Do you want to go to sleep?” Hongjoong shakes his head, but is still insistent on being taken to his room.

“Mama in room!” He manages to get out after a struggle to get the words stringed together.

Wooyoung and San quietly enter Hongjoong’s dorm room, not wanting to wake up Seonghwa.

“Okay Joongie, you have to be really really quiet, okay?” San whispers softly. “Hwahwa-hyung is sleeping.”

“Hwa!” Hongjoong gasps out as though realizing something. He continues to repeat “Hwa!” at a painful volume, making the pair cringe. To their dismay, Seonghwa stirs awake, groaning at the noise until he notices the faintly familiar figure of Hongjoong, who appears to be in Wooyoung’s arms.

San flicks the bedroom light on, figuring that Seonghwa’s awake anyway. Seonghwa winces, but reaches out from his top bunk bed to comfortingly pet Hongjoong’s hair.

“Hey, you’re okay, eomma’s here…” He says, his voice deep and raspy having just woken up.

“Mama! Mama wake!” Hongjoong says, making grabby hands towards Seonghwa. Wooyoung carefully helps Hongjoong into Seonghwa’s bunk, the little ungracefully plopping into the blankets, but being perfectly content either way. The couple give Hongjoong their final goodnight kisses before turning the light off and leaving the pair alone.

“I missed you lots.” Seonghwa smiles happily when Hongjoong snuggles into his chest.

“Mmhm.” Hongjoong makes a vague noise of agreement, absentmindedly sucking on the collar of Seonghwa’s tshirt. Seonghwa can’t help but giggle before fishing out the paci he always kept in the small space between his bed and the bedframe, gently popping it into Hongjoong’s mouth. Hongjoong huffs happily, making a content noise as he sucks on the paci. 

Seonghwa knew Hongjoong loved falling asleep to the sound of his voice, both in and out of little space.

“Mama loves you lots, you know that? I’ll always be here to take care of you, no matter what…” Is the last thing Hongjoong hears before falling asleep. He can’t quite comprehend the words in his cloudy headspace, but falls asleep happily knowing his caregiver loved him lots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you all liked it! i know the hwa as mama agenda is quite popular within ateez little fics, but i couldn't help but add it in hehe
> 
> i have reqs in my inbox from 30 days ago... but i promise i'll get to them soon!


	39. wooyoungie's burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wooyoung hurts himself while trying to get attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the request @MeepMeep12 and @JiminWreckedSugaBias! i'm so so sorry this took almost two months... but it's here now, and i hope you like it~

Wooyoung hardly ever spent his time in his little space alone. While the other members would usually be able to keep themselves busy for at least an hour when they were regressed, Wooyoung would hardly be able to go ten minutes without attention from somebody.

That’s why when everyone was busy with something or another, Wooyoung simply didn’t know how to deal with it. They all told him to watch cartoons, or play with his toys, but he couldn’t do those things by himself. It sounded boring doing anything without at least one of the other members.

He crosses his arms and frowns with a pout when Hongjoong tells him to go play by himself with his toy kitchen set. It was his absolute most favourite thing to play with, but as much as he wanted to, it wouldn’t be fun without anyone with him. He makes a big deal out of slamming the door of Hongjoong’s room in frustration when he leaves, making his way to the kitchen. Normally Hongjoong would scold him, but he had far too much to do at the moment and didn’t have the energy to deal with one of Wooyoung’s tantrums.

Wooyoung decides he’ll try something he’s never done by himself before. He figures, since everyone was busy, they would all be tired and hungry when they were done with their work. So he’d make a meal for them! They’d be so proud of him that they’d have to give him the love and attention he wanted.

Of course, he had an ulterior motive too.

Wooyoung knew he wasn’t allowed anywhere near the kitchen when he was little - he was always tempted by the sight of all the ingredients, pots and pans, and had a history of attempting to cook without supervision. Hongjoong and Seonghwa, in fact, any of the members, would almost definitely be mad at him if they saw what he was about to do. But at least they’d stop what they were doing to give him attention? Negative attention was still attention after all. Maybe they’d even cuddle up and watch cartoons with him instead of scolding him?

He isn’t quite sure where to begin, but he feels confident since the dorm’s kitchen resembles his own toy set. The first order of business would be to turn the stove on, he figures. After a few attempts, there’s finally an orange flame lit on the stove, and he grins excitedly. For a few moments he’s fascinated by the fire - he wants to touch it, it looks so cool!

Wooyoung reaches out, holding his palm over the stove. He brings it closer, until his palm touches the orange hot flame. He lets out a loud yelp and clutches his hand, hissing at the pain. He covers his mouth so no one would come to the kitchen and see that he hurt himself - he knew that they’d give him a long lecture about not using the kitchen.

And of course as expected, Hongjoong comes out of his room. Wooyoung quickly puts his hurt hand behind his back, not wanting to be scolded for it.

“Wooyoung, why is the stove on?” Hongjoong asks with a warning tone. Wooyoung doesn’t say anything, shaking his head and whimpering in response, staring at the floor.

“Did you turn it on? Without permission?” He nods in defeat, his bottom lip trembling.

Hongjoong mumbles under his breath frustratedly, shaking his head. “Corner. Fifteen minutes.” 

“But-” 

“No talking back, Wooyoungie.” Hongjoong gives him a warning look. 

Wooyoung sighs in defeat, trudging over to the corner and plopping down cross legged, his arms crossed. He looks down at his burnt palm, still searing with pain. He can’t do anything else but bring his knees up and cry. 

He thinks he’s cried for about five minutes when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He sniffles and wipes his tears, unblurring his vision to reveal San’s concerned face.

“Sannie!” He squeals, but San shushes him. 

“Sannie get in trouble if appa know he come to see Woo!” He whispers as though he’s on a top-secret mission. Wooyoung nods in understanding.

“W-Woo ouch…” Wooyoung sniffles, showing San his injured palm. San gasps in shock, pressing a quick kiss to the burn before running away. Wooyoung hears him shuffling around in the kitchen, but can’t quite see properly from where he’s sitting in his corner.

San scampers back, looking around carefully as though watching out for Hongjoong. He then reveals ice wrapped up in a zip-lock bag and paper towels, holding it carefully against Wooyoung’s palm.

“Th-Thank you Sannie.” Wooyoung smiles, his tears starting to dry on his face. The pair hear a door open, and San quickly runs away to where he was playing by himself in the living room.

“Wooyoungie? What is that?” Hongjoong takes notice of the ice on Wooyoung’s palm and sits down in front of Wooyoung. He gasps when he takes a closer look at Wooyoung’s hand.

“Wooyoung, you hurt yourself?!” Hongjoong practically yells. “This is what happens when you-” Hongjoong notices the way Wooyoung winces, looking at him with glassy eyes. “Sorry baby boy… Why didn’t you tell appa?” 

“Appa mad at Wooyoung!” Wooyoung feels the sting of tears threatening to leave his eyes again.

“Oh no baby, I wasn’t mad at you, I just didn’t want you to get hurt.” Hongjoong presses a kiss atop Wooyoung’s hand, picking him up and then guiding him to the kitchen. He runs his hand under the cold tap water before pressing the ice against his palm again.

“Who got you the ice?” 

“Sannie.” 

Hongjoong knew he would have to praise San for taking care of Wooyoung while he was hurt. 

“Wooyoungie, next time you’re hurt make sure you tell appa, okay?” Wooyoung nods, still visibly upset by Hongjoong’s scolding.

“How about appa and Wooyoungie cook something together for the family?” Wooyoung’s eyes light up, and he nods eagerly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to leave reqs~


	40. sangie the troublemaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeosang finds himself misbehaving more often than he normally would, and he doesn't like it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the req @SatanUiAgi! i'm sorry it took so long, but i hope you like it! ><

Hongjoong stares up longingly at the lolly cabinet, the forbidden fruit which he wasn’t supposed to endeavour. He stood on his tippy toes, waving his arms around wildly and trying his best to reach the handle of the cabinet, but he simply couldn’t. Being on the brink of babyspace, his motor skills weren’t the best even though he was within arm’s reach of the cabinet.

Oh! A brilliant idea pops into his head. 

He wobbles over to the living room, where Yeosang is happily occupying himself with some building blocks Seonghwa had bought the smaller littles the other day. 

“Sangie hyungie!” Hongjoong exclaims. No reply. The little seems absorbed in his own world, far too engaged in stacking the blocks up high and giggling everytime they wobble and fall on top of each other. 

“Hyungie!” He exclaims louder. Though Yeosang seemed to be the same age as Hongjoong right now, Hongjoong still felt the need to refer to him as older. He finally gets Yeosang’s attention, the blonde little tilting his head cutely, as though asking Hongjoong what he wanted.

“Joongie wan’ lollies.” He grins mischievously, knowing he would be in lots of trouble if papa was here right now.

But papa wasn’t here. He went for a nap, being exhausted from their long schedules, entrusting Yeosang to take care of the chaotic little that was Hongjoong. But of course, Yeosang ended up slipping too, and now they were two littles alone in the living room.

“Joongie not s’posed to eat lollies.” Yeosang says matter of factly, his attention shifting back to his building blocks. Hongjoong pouts.

“But Joongie hungy! A-An’ wan’ candies.” He huffs. Yeosang, even in his little headspace, knew a tantrum would be coming if Hongjoong didn’t get what he wanted. He sighs in annoyance and leaves his building blocks on the floor, getting up and waddling over to the kitchen cabinet. He knew he had to deal with either Seonghwa’s lecture about why the littles can’t have candy without permission, or a screaming and crying Hongjoong. He wouldn’t prefer the latter.

Yeosang huffs and rolls his eyes. It’s okay Sangie. You’re not a bad boy. You’re just taking care of your little brother. Even though he knows papa would be mad…

Yeosang traipses over to the kitchen, standing on his tippy toes and retrieving the lolly jar. He opens it for Hongjoong, handing him a single lollipop. Hongjoong squeals in excitement, struggling to unwrap the wrapper before he pops it into his mouth.

“T’ank you Sangie-hyung!” He muffles around the lollipop. Yeosang rolls his eyes, leaving the lolly jar on the counter since he thinks it’d be far too difficult to put it back in its place.

When Yeosang is about to be on his merry way and return to his building blocks, he hears a door open. He turns around and there he is. Seonghwa looks at Hongjoong, then at the jar on the counter, then at Yeosang. Hongjoong looks at Seonghwa excitedly, blissfully unaware that he had done anything wrong.

“Joongie, how did you get that?” Seonghwa asks calmly. 

“Sangie-hyung!” Hongjoong grins. 

“Okay kiddo.” He reluctantly lets Hongjoong finish his lollipop and puts the jar back in its place, going over to where Yeosang is seated on the living room playmat. 

“Sangie?” 

Yeosang pouts, avoiding eye contact with Seonghwa and continuing to play with his building blocks as though he didn’t hear him.

“Yeosangie, papa isn’t mad at you.” 

Yeosang finds his bottom lip trembling, tears brimming his eyes.

“S-Sangie bad! Sangie give Joongie candies!” He sobs.

“It’s okay, I know you won’t do it again. Remind me again why we don’t give Joongie candies?” 

“B-B’cause Joongie get hyper...” He sniffles.

“That’s right.” Seonghwa nods and ruffles Yeosang’s hair. “Papa loves you so much, Sangie.” He says softly, upset at seeing Yeosang so distressed.

“Love you too papa…” Yeosang finally looks at Seonghwa with his tear-filled eyes and hugs him tightly.

And Seonghwa was right. That afternoon, Hongjoong ended up being so hyper all of the members were worn out by the time he was tucked into bed.

═══════☆═══════

Despite the lollipop incident, Yeosang still found himself being convinced by the members to do things he wouldn’t necessarily want to do all the time. That was exactly what happened the next day.

“C’mon Sangie, it’ll be fun!” Wooyoung pouts after telling him the plan he and San had come up with. Yeosang was extremely reluctant to help them carry it out, but convinced himself that surely nothing could go wrong. It was just a harmless prank.

Yeosang pouts and helps Wooyoung and San move out Hongjoong’s mini recording set-up out of his room. They hide his microphone, mini-keyboard and laptop, Wooyoung and San giggling the whole time as they move the equipment to their room.

“Now we wait.” San smirks. Yeosang nervously bit the skin of his thumb as he waited for Hongjoong to come home any minute and notice everything missing. 

And of course, ten minutes later he heard Hongjoong yelling for Wooyoung and San.

“Okay, this isn’t funny anymore. You already hid my laptop once, but you can’t get rid of everything I own.” Hongjoong huffs. “Appa needs to work, I promise I’ll play with you after.” 

Wooyoung and San decide to play dumb. “What appa talking about?” San innocently tilts his head in confusion.

Yeosang can’t take it anymore, he decides. “S-Sangie hide it…” He pouts.

“Yeosang-ah?” Hongjoong asks, clearly puzzled. “You hid my things?” Yeosang nods. Wooyoung and San appear appalled at his revelation. Technically he wasn’t lying, but he still took the fall for both of them.

“Sangie hide appa’s thingies! ‘S in my room. ‘M sorry!” He does his best to hold back his tears, knowing this was his second time misbehaving this week when he usually was on his best behaviour. He might even be punished…

“Corner, ten minutes Yeosang.” Unlike Seonghwa, Hongjoong doesn’t coddle the littles and doesn’t hesitate to dish out punishments when they’ve acted up. This was enough to push Yeosang over the brink of tears and have him crying. Hongjoong was used to the littles getting upset when they had to sit in the corner, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel bad everytime.

“Wooyoung, San. Take care of your brother and make sure he gets out in 10 minutes.” Hongjoong says, getting to work on moving back all of his equipment to his room.

As soon as Hongjoong is out of sight, the two littles stumble over their feet to get to the corner where Yeosang is crying into his hands. They both approach him on either side, hugging him tightly. 

“‘S okay Sangie.” Wooyoung says sadly.

Yeosang vigorously shakes his head. “S-Sangie in corner! Sangie bad boy!” He manages to get out through choked sobs.

San shakes his boy. “Nuh uh! Sangie is the goodest boy! An’ appa and papa and Wooyoungie and Sannie love Sangie lots n’ lots!” Yeosang looks up at San hopefully, sniffling and wiping his tears.

“Weally?” 

“Really. Pinky promise!” San and Yeosang join pinkies.

“Love you lots Woo an' Sannie!” 

As soon as Yeosang is out of the timeout corner, he knows he never wants to be a troublemaker like the others again. He was happy to remain as appa and papa’s well-behaved little angel.


	41. icky sangie, woo and minmin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mingi and woo fall sick after playing in the snow. so does yeosang, but he doesn't want to bother anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first of all - thank you so much for 500 kudos!! i can't explain how much it means to me, and i'm so glad that people find comfort reading this <3
> 
> thank you for the reqs @ateezers anon and @chikinyeo!! i'm sorry it took so long but i hope you like it <3

Exhausted was an understatement when describing how Mingi felt after coming home. 

He honestly blamed himself for it a little bit. With the winter months well around the corner, it had been snowing, enough for the boys to throw snowballs at each other and play around for an hour. Him and Wooyoung in particular had enjoyed themselves a little too much, making snow angels and now returning home with red, sniffling noses.

As soon as he made it past the door, he unceremoniously flopped onto the living room sofa. He shuffled around for the TV remote, letting the first channel that came on play. It just so happened to be a cartoon channel for kids. He heard footsteps approaching behind him, then a weight next to his legs dipping down the sofa.

“Are you okay?” Hongjoong’s warm, comforting voice asked him.

Before he could answer, Mingi let out a sneeze. Then another. Then another.

“Hey…” Hongjoong rearranges Mingi’s blankets so he’s completely wrapped up and warm, like a little burrito. Mingi looks up at him with only his face peeking out of the blankets, gazing at Hongjoong as though pleading for help.

“Minmin feel icky... An’ tired.” He pouts, not even trying to stop himself from regressing anymore.

“It’s okay Minminnie, appa’s here to take care of you.” Hongjoong leans down to press a small kiss to the tip of Mingi’s cold nose, making the little giggle softly. 

“Let me get you some hot chocolate and medicine, okay?” Mingi nods.

“Marshmallows”, Mingi tried to say, but instead it just comes out as “Mshmo”. Hongjoong chuckles, understanding perfectly well what Mingi wants. He already knew how Mingi liked his hot chocolate. Mingi let his eyes flutter shut as Hongjoong goes to the kitchen. 

Hongjoong swears he feels his soul jump out of his body when he feels a pair of arms wrap around him from behind as he’s making Mingi’s hot chocolate. He’s about to scold Mingi for getting out of the sofa before he turns around and sees that it isn’t Mingi who’s clinging to him.

“Wooyoung? Why aren’t you asleep?” He asks the pouting boy.

“Feel icky…” He mumbles quietly, sniffling after his sentence.

“Oh poor baby.” Hongjoong tuts, petting Wooyoung’s hair and giving him the attention he loves to receive when he’s little. “Tell you what, you can go cuddle up with Mingi on the sofa and I’ll help you both feel better, okay?” Wooyoung nods, scampering off to Mingi’s blanket fort on the large pull-out sofa.

Hongjoong works on fixing up another cup of hot chocolate for Wooyoung with no marshmallows, picking up the two cups mixed with a spoonful of cold syrup each. 

When he returns to the living room, his heart melts to mush at the sight of Wooyoung and Mingi cuddling, both with flushed cheeks and noses.

“Wake up my princes.” Hongjoong sing-songs softly, putting the two mugs down and shaking them awake. They both grumble and whine in complaint, but instantly cheer up when they smell the familiar scent of Hongjoong’s famous hot chocolate. The boys happily gulp down the hot drink, despite Hongjoong telling them to slow down. The medicine immediately takes effect, as the pair feel drowsy almost immediately after finishing their drinks.

It’s a pain to convince them both to go to their beds so they’re more comfortable, but Hongjoong finally gets the two littles in their respective beds, tucking them in with their stuffies and giving them their goodnight kiss. He could only pray that they’d get better by the next morning.

═══════☆═══════

When Yeosang wakes up, the first thing he notices is the heavy, throbbing pain in his head. He sniffled, his nose threatening to start running as he let out a sneeze. He frantically reaches out for a tissue, grabbing about three at once from the tissue box on his bedside table and pressing them to his nose. It takes all of his energy not to burst into tears.

He decides to get out of bed. Despite how much he wanted to stay in bed and do nothing, he knows appa or papa would be able to help him feel better. He scampers off to their room, opening it to find that neither of them are there. He’s about to break into tears before he hears voices coming from Mingi’s room. Voices that sounded like appa and papa!

He excitedly skips over to Mingi’s room, despite how much it hurt his head to do so. He swings open the door, finding Hongjoong and Seonghwa leaning over Mingi’s bed, who’s all wrapped up in his blankets with Wooyoung. Why was Wooyoung here? Yeosang wonders.

“Hey Sangie.” Seonghwa says softly. “Minmin and Woo are sick right now, so you and your brothers will have to be super nice and careful with them, okay?” Yeosang nodded in understanding.

He realized that appa and papa were probably already so occupied with taking care of Mingi and Wooyoung. Surely they wouldn’t be able to take care of him as well.

“Did you need something?” Hongjoong asks. Yeosang shakes his head, leaving the room pouting. 

As the day went on, Mingi, Wooyoung, Hongjoong and Seonghwa were all holed up in Mingi’s room. Hongjoong and Seonghwa would only come out to get food or medicine for the ill pair. The other members were preoccupied with their own things as it was a rest day, leaving Yeosang alone. His condition worsened, his throat feeling dry and scratchy no matter how much water he drank, yet he still refused to bother appa and papa. 

Finally, it all came to a breaking point. The sore throat, the pounding head and flushed cheeks became too much for him, as he bawled out in frustration, sobbing loudly and burying himself in his bedsheets so appa and papa wouldn’t hear him. He clings to his bunny stuffie tightly, his cries not ceasing, which makes him feel even worse than he did before if that was even possible.

He doesn’t hear someone knock on the door and enter over the sound of his own cries and sniffles.

“Angel?” Seonghwa notices the lump in the blanket, pulling it away to reveal an extremely dishevelled Yeosang. His gray shirt was damp at the collar. Whether it was with his tears, sweat, runny nose or all three, Seonghwa couldn’t tell.

“Oh poor baby… What happened?” Seonghwa reached for a tissue and lightly dabbed at Yeosang’s nose, shushing him softly and petting his hair. “Papa’s here now, you don’t have to worry about anything.” He says soothingly when Yeosang doesn’t calm down, sputtering and still crying. 

After a few minutes, Yeosang manages to get out a single word. “Icky.” He cries.

“Oh it’s okay. I’ll take care of you.” Yeosang shakes his head. “Minmin! Woo!” He sobs.

“It’s okay my precious, appa’s got them.” Seonghwa consoles, picking up the little and tucking him into bed. The statement seems to calm down Yeosang, as his sobs simmer down to soft whimpers. 

Seonghwa gets to work to make Yeosang comfortable. He hands him his favourite stuffies to cuddle with while he goes off to fix up a warm bottle of milk for him. He tests the temperature of the milk on his hand before returning to the little, finding that he had fallen asleep in the five minutes he was gone. Seonghwa smiles fondly, leaving the bottle of milk on his bedside table and kissing his forehead.

“Goodnight little prince, I love you so much.” He says, turning off Yeosang's bedroom light and cuddling up with him.


	42. tall/small mingi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingi feels insecure as a tall little

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the reqs @iuvmark and @seoulsin! <3

It was a rare occurrence for Mingi to regress into babyspace, though it still happened every now and then. On this particular evening, Mingi found himself in a cloudier headspace while watching cartoons with appa and papa, happily sucking on his paci and giggling every now and then when something even mildly amusing happened on the TV.

“Ready to have dinner, Minmin?” Hongjoong pipes up.

Mingi finds that he can’t do anything but make unhappy gurgles of protest around his paci. No, he didn’t want to have dinner. He wants to keep watching his cartoons! He shakes his head furiously and clings to Seonghwa’s arm.

“Okay okay, ten more minutes.” Hongjoong chuckles. Mingi grins around his paci and snuggles closer to Seonghwa.

“Is someone feeling smaller?” Seonghwa asks him in his baby voice. Mingi giggles and nods happily.

Seonghwa found that when he was in babyspace, Mingi became less fussy and instead was more cheerful, finding joy in the smallest things. This was much unlike the other littles, who would instead be more prone to tears and tantrums when they were in babyspace. For this reason, he would always find a particular happiness in taking care of Mingi when he was feeling younger.

Ten minutes pass by in what feels like ten seconds, and it’s time for Mingi’s dinner. Hongjoong gets up, looking at Mingi as though expecting him to do the same.

“Come on Minminnie, it’s dinnertime.” Hongjoong says cheerfully. 

Mingi looks up at Hongjoong with his wide glassy eyes and makes grabby hands towards him. Hongjoong could tell he was pouting around his pacifier.

Hongjoong smiles and approaches Mingi. He pauses before he goes to pick up Mingi like he would any of the littles. He doesn’t say anything, but looks to Seonghwa for help. Seonghwa immediately picks up on what Hongjoong is trying to communicate with his eyes. 

Seonghwa stands up and after a short, silent struggle, picks up Mingi. Mingi’s bottom lip starts to quiver as he breaks into tears, wailing around his pacifier. He must have picked up on what happened as well after realizing Seonghwa had struggled to pick him up. Mingi curls his hands into tiny fists, lightly beating them against Seonghwa’s shoulders as though asking to be put down. 

Seonghwa gently puts the boy down on the sofa, softly shushing him as sobs continue to stream for his lips, his paci having fallen out of his mouth.

“My poor little Minnie… What’s wrong, puppy?” Seonghwa soothingly pets his hair, wiping away the tears on his cheeks.

Mingi manages to sputter something out. “M-Min… Big!” He says before more tears spill out.

“Oh darling, you aren’t big, you’re our tiny baby.” Seonghwa says, a small smile on his face.

Mingi shakes his head in frustration. Papa didn’t get it!

“‘M big! S-Sangie a-an’ Jongie not big! B-But Minmin big! Appa can’t carry Min!” He manages to get his explanation out, his mood effectively pulling him out of babyspace. Seonghwa finally seems to get it.

“Oh princess...” Seonghwa makes sure Mingi is okay before picking him up again.

“See? Papa can pick you up just fine!” He says cheerfully. The statement seems to calm Mingi down a bit, which Hongjoong is thankful for. Seonghwa was always great at handling situations like this.

Seonghwa carried Mingi to bed while Hongjoong fixed up a bottle for him, letting Mingi have his dinner from the comfort of his own bed. Mingi had finally stopped crying, his tears now dried on his cheeks as he was comfortably situated in bed with his stuffie and paci. 

═══════☆═══════

It had been several weeks since that night Mingi regressed, and he hadn’t regressed since. Hongjoong and Seonghwa grew increasingly concerned for him, as all of the boys would usually regress at least once a week. They didn’t want to make him feel forced by confronting him, so they let him take it at his own pace. The couple believed he would regress when he felt comfortable enough to.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, with no schedules for the day. Mingi laid comfortably on the living room couch, watching a random drama that happened to be on TV when Hongjoong approached him.

“Lunch is ready.” He sing-songs. Mingi doesn’t respond with anything but a discontent grumble. He was far too comfortable to go anywhere. 

“Come on, Min.” Hongjoong sighs and makes his way over to Mingi’s spot on the sofa, teasingly wrapping his arms around him as though he’s about to pick him up.

“S-Stop, don’t!” Mingi suddenly exclaims, pushing Hongjoong off of him. 

“Min, are you okay?” Hongjoong asks, concerned.

“Just… Don’t pick me up. I can get to the dining room myself.” He mumbles, avoiding eye contact with Hongjoong and shuffling away quickly.

That was strange, Hongjoong thought. Very strange. He couldn’t help but think he did something wrong. He must have, with the way Mingi got upset. 

The dots finally connect in Hongjoong’s head.

  
  


═══════☆═══════

Yunho was the one member Mingi really connected with, both in and out of little space. Of course, being his boyfriend, Yunho was the one Mingi told everything to when he was big. Meanwhile, little Mingi’s big heart always filled with joy when Yunho would play with him and take care of him. He always saw him as his main caregiver, even when Yunho was regressed himself. 

Mingi and Yunho were cuddling in bed when Yunho decided to subtly bring up what Hongjoong had told him.

“I miss my little Minminnie.” He says quietly, petting Mingi’s hair as he knew he loved it when he was little. Mingi’s nose scrunches as he tries his best to reject Yunho’s attempt to get him to regress. He doesn’t say anything in response.

“Does my little puppy want to come out and play?” 

Mingi’s eyes grow wide with curiosity as they always do when he’s regressed. Yunho could tell Mingi was trying his best not to regress. What he couldn’t tell was why he wouldn’t want to. 

“B-But..” Mingi trails off, his voice higher as he slipped into his headspace. He pouted in frustration. Why did words have to be so hard?

“It’s okay, take your time.” Yunho says soothingly. 

“Minmin can’t be tiny.” Mingi mumbles quietly, though Yunho still picks it up.

“Why not, princess?” 

“‘M big an’ tall, l-like Yunnie! But Yunnie not little like Minmin!” 

Yunho pauses, taking in what Mingi’s told him. Hongjoong mentioned this same thing to him, but he didn’t realize Mingi’s insecurity affected him so much that he didn’t want to regress.

“Being tall isn’t a bad thing, sweetheart. It means you’re growing up, strong and healthy like a big boy!” 

Mingi stares up at Yunho with stars in his eyes, his toothy eye smile returning. Oh how Yunho had missed that bright smile. 

“Rweally?”

“Really, promise.”

Mingi fell asleep in Yunho’s arms with a content smile on his face.

═══════☆═══════

“How did you get him to regress again?” Hongjoong whispered with bewilderment as he took in the sight of Mingi comfortably asleep in Yunho’s arms, subconsciously sucking on his thumb in his sleep.

“You just need to treat him like the small little baby he is.” Yunho says quietly, looking at Mingi endearingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry for the slow updates, school has been hectic as usual ><
> 
> come talk to me on twt!: @starryhwahwa


	43. icky hwahwa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hongjoong has a schedule while Seonghwa is sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the reqs @Loola anon, @LilithStarlight and @ceereads (i swapped joong and hwa, i hope that's okay!). and sorry it took so long!

If Seonghwa had to use one word to describe how he was feeling, it was “sick.” He was sick of his schedules. He was sick of running around from one place to another to attend to his schedules. And in general, he was sick.

His cold had been bothering him before the day had even started. Hongjoong had picked up on how often he was sniffling while they got dressed for the day. He offered to come up with an excuse with the manager if he had to stay home and rest, but Seonghwa simply waved it off. 

During practice, he’d sneeze every so often. Hongjoong laid his palm against Seonghwa’s forehead during one of their short breaks to feel if he was burning up.

“You have a fever.” He stated plainly, giving Seonghwa an unimpressed look.

“Hey, at least you’re matching our album concept.” San chuckled from somewhere in the room.

Seonghwa simply rolled his eyes, and remained persistent to continue practice. 

By the end of practice, his condition had worsened significantly. Did his head normally feel this fuzzy? He could feel a burning tickle in his throat that no amount of water would get rid of, and his cheeks started growing visibly flushed. 

“That’s it, we’re going home and resting.” Hongjoong repeatedly nagged Seonghwa, who would simply shake his head.

“You don’t have a choice.” Hongjoong stated. His tone indicated that his decision was final. 

Seonghwa mumbled in protest under his breath, not wanting to say anything directly to his already frustrated boyfriend. 

On the way home, Seonghwa fell asleep on Hongjoong’s shoulder as the latter soothingly pet his hair. Hongjoong slowly shook him awake when they got home, earning a whine of protest from the older. 

“C’mon, let’s get you in bed.” Hongjoong says softly.

“Don’ wanna get up.” Seonghwa pouts and huffs.

Hongjoong hadn’t realised he had regressed. He gently coaxed a whining Seonghwa until he found the energy to hold Hongjoong’s hand and let him guide him inside.

As soon as Seonghwa is tucked into bed, his feelings catch up to him and he bursts into tears. He doesn’t know why or what causes it, but he can’t stop. Hongjoong’s soothing voice and his hand in his hair helps bring him back to reality. 

“D-Don’ like being icky! Hwahwa hates it!” He sobs into Hongjoong’s shoulder. Seonghwa hardly ever raised his voice above a whisper when he was in little space. Hongjoong couldn’t imagine just how upset this was making Seonghwa.

“Oh I know angel, but appa and your brothers are gonna help you get all better, okay?” Seonghwa nods in understanding, pulling the blankets over his head in embarrassment.

“‘M sorry…” Seonghwa muffles into his pillow. His voice is back to a quiet mumble. 

“Why, angel? You didn’t do anything wrong.” Hongjoong says.

“Hwahwa yell.” He lets Hongjoong move the blanket away from his face and wipe his eyes. 

“Appa’s not mad, prince.” Hongjoong almost laughs. He’s interrupted by a knock on the door.

A few seconds later, Yunho walks in.

“Hey, precious.” Yunho makes himself comfortable next to Seonghwa and grabs a tissue from their bedside table, gently dabbing at Seonghwa’s wet face. Seonghwa only responds with a pout.

“Yuyu-hyung gonna help Hwahwa get better?” Seonghwa asks with a hopeful twinkle in his eyes.

Hongjoong nods. He didn’t know how to break this next piece of bad news to Seonghwa. Thankfully, Yunho does it for him.

“Yes, Yu-hyung and your brothers are gonna take care of you, because appa has to go soon.” Yunho says softly.

The reaction is instant. Seonghwa furiously shakes his head in protest. “No, no no! Don’ go appa!” He starts crying again.

“Oh baby boy, I promise appa will be back soon, okay? You can even watch appa on your screen!” 

Seonghwa pauses. “Bee libe?” He whimpers.

“Yes, appa’s gonna be on V-Live!” 

It comforts Seonghwa slightly. He pouts in defeat and looks down sadly.

“Hwahwa gonna miss appa.” He says sadly.

“I’m gonna miss you too, but I promise I’ll be back soon.” Hongjoong says, linking his pinky with Seonghwa’s. 

═══════☆═══════

An hour later, and all of the members are in Seonghwa’s room, doing everything in their power to cheer up the still very upset little. They told him stories to try to help him nap, which didn’t work. They made a huge plushie tower on his bed, gave him Yeosang’s rattle which he usually loved playing with and even made him a special, supposedly magic bottle of milk which he only half finished.

Yet still, Seonghwa pouts sadly at his phone screen as he watches Hongjoong in his studio on V-Live, responding to comments from Atiny. 

“The members? They’re all at the dorm right now. Seonghwa has a cold… Let’s all hope he gets better soon!” Hongjoong says on the screen.

Seonghwa gasps around the paci in his mouth, looking up at the other members as though saying “Did you hear that? Appa said my name!”

With Seonghwa gradually getting into better spirits watching his appa, the members find themselves doing their own thing on their phones or talking to each other. Nobody notices Seonghwa sneakily close the V-Live app and go into his phone contacts.

“Appa?” Seonghwa says into the phone when Hongjoong picks up the phone. 

On the other side of the screen, Hongjoong panics and puts the phone off of speaker. He knew he wouldn’t be able to babytalk Seonghwa or use any petnames - everyone watching the live would get suspicious.

“Hey, Seonghwa. Are you feeling better?” Hongjoong attempts to say casually.

Seonghwa pouts. Why did appa sound so weird? Why did he call him by his name?

“Nuh uh, wan’ appa here.” 

The other members stare at Seonghwa wide eyed. They knew he’d get even more upset if they hung up the phone, so they just let him continue the phone call, watching him carefully.

“I’ll be back home soon, okay?” Hongjoong says. Seonghwa nods as though Hongjoong would be able to see it.

“Hwahwa loves you, appa!” Seonghwa says, making a loud kissy noise through the phone, which usually, Hongjoong would return.

“Mhm, me too.” Hongjoong says, gritting his teeth and hanging up the phone. He knew he would have to apologize to Seonghwa for acting so strange. He silently prays the audience didn’t find the call suspicious.

Seonghwa looks up at the rest of the members. “Appa angy with Hwahwa?” 

San shakes his head, petting Seonghwa’s hair. “Appa’s a little busy right now, so we need to wait just a little longer for him to come home, okay?” Seonghwa nods in understanding.

═══════☆═══════

“Appa!” Seonghwa happily croaks out when he finally comes back. He makes grabby hands towards him, and Hongjoong cuddles him in the biggest hug Seonghwa has ever received. The members silently shuffle out to give them space.

“I missed you little prince! Appa’s sorry he was so weird earlier.” Hongjoong says.

“No mad?” 

“No mad.” 

Seonghwa hums contently, shuffling closer to his appa and clinging to him like a koala to a tree. 

“Appa?” He says after a short moment of silence.

“Yes, prince?” 

“Hwahwa loves you lots an’ lots.” He mumbles shyly.

“I love you too, my treasure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love writing little hwa so much, i'm weak


	44. woo's birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a late, fluffy wooyoung birthday chapter <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaa i'm so sorry for disappearing!! i've been having writer's block and have exams soon, so i haven't been able to write 🥺 nonetheless, i hope you guys like this!

“Appa, papa, wakey, wakey wakey!” Seonghwa and Hongjoong both grumble in confusion when they're woken up to an ear-splitting shriek.

They open their eyes to see a grinning Wooyoung sitting on top of them. They had never seen him so excited before.

“‘S my birfday!” The boy grins happily when they both look at him.

“Yes it is! Happy birthday, prince!” Although all he wants to do is go back to sleep, Hongjoong finds it in himself to cuddle Wooyoung and give him kisses all over his face, which the boy giggles in response to.

“We have a very special day planned for you, prince!” Hongjoong says cheerfully. Wooyoung gasps in response. 

“Let’s go, let’s go!” He yells.

“Not right now, prince. Right now it’s sleepy time. It’s 4am.” Seonghwa speaks groggily, rubbing his eyes and immediately going back to sleep.

Eventually, Wooyoung falls asleep in their arms until it’s time to wake up again.

═══════☆═══════

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Wooyoung kept repeating, rushing around everyone to make sure they get dressed quickly. The first thing Hongjoong and Seonghwa have planned on the agenda is to take the boys to a puppy cafe nearby. After all, Wooyoung loved playing with dogs.

None of the boys wanted to get in the way of Wooyoung’s excitement, who was running around with the largest grin on his face.

When they finally get to the puppy cafe, the boy can't hold back his excitement. “Appa looky looky! Look’t the puppies!” 

The puppies seemed equally excited to see Wooyoung, leaping around his legs. Wooyoung couldn’t stop giggling, playing with the puppies and letting them pounce on him. The other boys joined him, running around with the puppies, petting them and giving them treats. It eventually became a chaotic scene until the boys finally get tired out, each finding an area of the room to slump down in. 

“How does ice cream sound, boys?” Seonghwa speaks.

Immediately, their energy is renewed.

═══════☆═══════

“Umm, I wan’ mint! Nuh uh, das yucky… Um, stwawberry an’ chocolate an’ cookie an’ rainbow ‘s good!” The boys all watch as Wooyoung takes his sweet time picking what flavour he wants, looking at all the rainbow coloured flavours with stars in his eyes.

“Hurry up!” San whines.

“No, go ‘way!” Wooyoung pouts and shoves San.

“Wooyoung! You don’t shove your brothers. And San, you don’t yell at your brothers.” Hongjoong immediately chides the pair.

“But ‘s my birfday! Wooyoungie can do what’ver he wants!” Wooyoung argues back with a frown and a pout on his face.

“That doesn’t mean you can be a meanie, Woo. Now say sorry to Sannie.” 

Wooyoung huffs before accepting defeat. “‘M sorry for being a meanie Sannie”. He pouts.

“‘S okie.” San pouts, letting Wooyoung go back to taking his time in picking the flavours. 

Finally, Wooyoung settles on a triple scoop of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. He happily slurps away at his cone, even though it’s melting all over his hands.

“Thankies, appa and papa!” He grins with melted ice cream on the tip of his nose and all over his hands.

═══════☆═══════

“Oh darling, you’ve had such a long day haven’t you?” 

Wooyoung sniffles, nodding in agreement. Even though it was an extremely fun, exciting day, it tired the poor little boy out far too much, to the point where he slips to babyspace.

“There you go, angel.” Seonghwa slips a warm sippy cup full of milk to Wooyoung, who shakes his head and whines, passing it back to his papa. Seonghwa gets the hint and lets Wooyoung gets comfortable in his lap, gently easing the boy into drinking from the cup.

“Our special birthday boy, we love you so much. You’re our perfect, talented angel.” Hongjoong coos. Wooyoung’s eyes get heavy with the praise, getting lost in this soft, fuzzy feeling of being in the warmth of his appa and papa.

And honestly, he couldn’t ask for a better gift than being with the two people he loved most.


	45. joongie the scary monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hongjoong wants to be the scariest monster there is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg,,, it's been many moons since i've updated this, but i'm back!!
> 
> well, somewhat. i haven't really had motivation to write anything, so here's a tiny little mini chapter i wrote! it is entirely based off of this:
> 
> https://twitter.com/correcthonghwa/status/1340473724810588160?s=19

“Boo!” 

Seonghwa swears he feels his soul leave his body when a figure jumps out from behind his bedroom door, terrifying the living daylights out of him. 

“Hongjoong, what on earth are you-” He stops himself when he sees the boy giggling with his favourite stuffie in his arm, clearly in his little headspace.

“‘M scaring mama!” He giggles, making grabby hands towards Seonghwa.

“Well you definitely scared me, that’s for sure little rascal.” Seonghwa picks up Hongjoong and ruffles his hair. He hadn’t even realized the younger had regressed - in fact he regressed very rarely, so he didn’t want to upset Hongjoong by scolding him. Instead he peppers his face with kisses until the younger gets sleepy enough to fall asleep. 

═══════☆═══════

No one thought much of Hongjoong’s harmless hobby of hiding behind doors and scaring people, until it actually became a problem and upset the littles.

“Roar!” Hongjoong jumped out from his hiding spot, shaping his hands like claws as Yeosang waddled into his room to get his paci.

The younger’s bottom lip quivered before he broke into tears, sobbing and quickly running away before he could even see what had scared him. He runs into Seonghwa’s arms in the living room, doing his best to babble out what had scared him in his room.

“Oh no my poor little Sangie, what’s got you so upset?” Seonghwa asks in his baby voice.

“S-Scary m-monster in Sangie’s room!” Yeosang manages to get out, still sobbing.

“Oh my dear Sangie, I promise monsters aren’t real, so they can’t hurt you!” Yeosang remains unconvinced. Seonghwa knows exactly what’s going on in Yeosang’s room.

“Come on, how about we go into your room and I’ll show you there’s nothing scary there?” Seonghwa asks. Yeosang whimpers in fear but nods nonetheless. He knows papa wouldn’t let him get hurt.

With Yeosang in his arms, Seonghwa makes his way to Yeosang’s shared room, flicking the light on to find nothing there.

“See? I told you there’s nothing-” 

“Roar!” 

Yeosang shrieks and bursts into tears again, burying his face into Seonghwa’s neck and clinging to him tightly.

Unlike Yeosang, Seonghwa isn’t quivering in fear. Instead he shakes his head, seeing who’s in front of him.

“Joongie, you can’t scare Sangie like that.” Seonghwa says sternly, rubbing said boy’s back comfortingly as he sniffs.

“Hmph, why not?” Hongjoong pouts, crossing his arms.

“Because it scares him.” 

“But ‘m a monster! ‘M s’posed to be scawy!” Hongjoong huffs, furrowing his brows. Seonghwa knew a tantrum could be coming if he didn’t get his way.

“We already know you’re the scariest monster ever Joongie, now you don’t have to scare us anymore.” Seonghwa says. He recalls Hongjoong scaring San while he was holding a cup of juice, which end up with juice spilled all over the floor

and a very upset San.

Hongjoong sighs in defeat and storms off to his room, aggressively shutting the door behind him with a pout. Seonghwa knew that out of all the littles, Hongjoong would always handle being told off the worst.

“I make Joongie-hyungie sad?” Yeosang sniffles.

“Not at all, sweetheart. Joong’s just being a little grumpy monster.” Seonghwa says softly.

  
  


═══════☆═══════

“Sweetheart?” 

After washing up in the bathroom and getting ready for bed, Seonghwa returns to his shared bedroom to find Hongjoong in bed. He has his baby blue paci resting in his mouth, is holding a sippy cup half filled with juice and has his phone resting on his lap, playing some animated cartoon with talking animals. All while wrapped up in his blue blanket he liked to be wrapped up in when he felt little. He looks up, finally noticing Seonghwa’s presence in the room, seemingly so absorbed in his cartoon that he didn’t hear him.

“Mama!” He squeals happily around his paci, making grabby hands towards Seonghwa. Seonghwa gives in to his wants, and cuddles Hongjoong.

“Mama?” 

“Yes, Joong?”

“‘M I still a scary monster?” Hongjoong asks with dewy puppy eyes.

“Yep, you’re the scariest monster there is.” Seonghwa says endearingly, pressing a kiss to the tip of his baby’s nose.


	46. jongie's bedtime stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingi usually tells Jongho a bedtime story and cuddles him to sleep every night, but what happens when Mingi moves rooms?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, i'm slow at updating >< i'm so sorry that i pretty much update monthly at this rate, but i hope you all still enjoy this chapter!
> 
> thank you for the req 🍭 anon!
> 
> i'd like to dedicate this chapter to my good friend @BabieJongho <3

Jongho loved his appa and papa more than anything, he really did. He also loved his hyungs lots, but he had a special bond with one of them that couldn’t be compared. Jongho loved having  Mingi as his roommate, as it meant he could tell him stories before he went to sleep while he was little. Usually Hongjoong or Seonghwa would take up the special task of telling the littles bedtime stories, but little Jongho always insisted that it be Mingi.

“And then, a roaring dragon came to protect the prince when the knight tried to save him!”

Jongho gasped in fear as Mingi told him an incredulous story of a prince being saved by a beautiful knight. 

“Dwagon bad!” He exclaimed.

“But it was okay, because the knight heroically saved the prince from the tower, then they got married and lived happily ever after!” 

Jongho toothily smiled up at Mingi. He loved stories that ended happily ever after more than anything! 

The little let out a long yawn, rubbing his eyes.

“I guess it’s bedtime now, huh?” Mingi watches fondly as Jongho sleepily nods in agreement. Mingi helps him get tucked into his blankets and situates his elephant stuffie so it's safely secured in his arms.

“Anything else, prince?” Mingi asks before he makes his way to climb up to the top bunk. Jongho ponders for a moment before making grabby hands towards Mingi.

“Minmin cuddle pwease?” He asks sweetly. Mingi could never say no to those puppy eyes, so he merely smiles and gets situated into Jongho’s bedsheets. Though it’s a little cramped, Mingi can’t complain. He wouldn’t trade cuddles with Jongho for anything.

“Night night my baby bear, I love you so much.” Mingi says before they comfortably fall asleep in each other’s embrace.

═══════☆═══════

“Don’t miss me too much”. Mingi grins. Jongho rolls his eyes.

“Don’t be so dramatic, your room is right next to mine”. He says, picking up another box full of Mingi’s things.

“I’m serious, who’s gonna be there to tell you bedtime stories, hm?” Mingi replies teasingly.

“I have the hyungs.” Jongho retorts. Mingi can’t say it doesn’t sting a little bit, but he carries on moving his things into his new single room.

═══════☆═══════

“The end.” Hongjoong smiles as he finishes Jongho’s bedtime story of the night.

Jongho smiles at his appa, but something’s missing. Something he can’t quite put his finger on. In his small headspace, he merely brushes it off and thanks appa for the story, lets him slip a paci between his lips and give him a kiss goodnight, then goes to sleep.

Except he doesn’t fall asleep. Jongho tosses and turns, whimpering softly as he struggles to fall asleep despite how tired he is.

_ Mingi. _

The name echoes in his head. It was his first night without Mingi, and suddenly it all clicks. The absence of Mingi’s cuddles and his deep, warm voice telling him a bedtime story, it was all gone. Tears are rushing down his cheeks as he thinks of the fact that he’s  _ all alone  _ without Mingi here to comfort him.

But then a thought occurs to him in the fog of his fear stricken mind. Mingi was right next door! Maybe he would be able to get his cuddles after all?

Jongho finds it in himself to get out of bed and waddle over to Mingi’s room door, knocking on it quietly.

Nothing.

He huffs, knocking again. “Wan’ Minminnie…” He sniffles quietly around his paci.

Just when he’s about to give up and go back to his room, a dishevelled, sleepy Mingi opens the door.

“Oh, little one…” Jongho doesn’t have to say anything for Mingi to pick him up and comfortingly run his fingers through his hair. “I’ve got you, I’m here now.” He says softly. It’s enough to get the little to stop crying, who snuggles into Mingi’s chest.

The taller boy comfortably situates Jongho in his bed, tucking him in before slipping in next to him and wrapping his arms around him. Jongho’s dewy eyes are still wide awake, looking straight up at Mingi expectantly.

“Once upon a time…” And Mingi delves into another fascinating story while Jongho’s eyes slowly start to droop.

Mingi swears he hears a faint little “Love you, dada” before the little easily falls asleep in his embrace.


	47. sangie's makeup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeosang tries to do his own makeup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg- thank you guys so much for 700 kudos! i'm so glad my story can be a comfort to even a few people, and i'm so happy that people enjoy reading this and stay for updates <3 thank you so much to everyone who always supports this series!!
> 
> thank you for the req @SatanUiAgi! this was requested a few months ago but i still hope you like it! it's a bit short, but i had lots of fun writing this one!

It was well known among the members, and even Atiny, that Yeosang was a messy eater. He would always see clips of the members gently wiping his mouth resurfacing on Twitter, finding that many people found it endearing.

And that was just when Yeosang was big.

Needless to say, little Yeosang was messy when he ate. Very messy.

“Oh, Sang…” Hongjoong had left the room for barely a few minutes, not too concerned about Yeosang since he seemed a little bit older than what he usually regressed to. But what he saw in front of him definitely wasn’t what he was expecting. He sighs and tuts when he finds that Yeosang has sauce from his dino nuggets all over the pink sweater he’s wearing, and even some of his apple juice on his sleeves. How did he even manage to spill juice from a sippy cup? 

Yeosang’s bottom lip quivers. “A-Appa angy?” He asks, a pout on his sauce covered lips.

Hongjoong knows he can’t outwardly express his frustration since Yeosang would get upset. 

“Not at all, sweetheart. We just gotta clean you up, okay?” Yeosang nods in understanding, raising his arms to let Hongjoong take off his messy sweater and carry him to the bathroom.

Once Yeosang has splashed around in the bath to his heart’s content and Hongjoong has completely dried him off, he carries him back to his room.

Yeosang squeals in excitement, seeing his papa in bed on his phone.

“Hi, Sangie!” Seonghwa greets him with excitement as the younger makes grabby hands towards him. 

“Could you take care of him for a bit? I want to do a Vlive today.” Seonghwa nods, distracting Yeosang so he doesn’t get upset that Hongjoong would be leaving soon.

Yeosang soon grows bored of playing peekaboo with Seonghwa, and instead shifts his focus to what Hongjoong’s doing. He finds that his appa is dipping what looks like a paintbrush into a palette full of different colours, and painting his eyelids. Yeosang gasps.

“Appa paint face?” He asks Seonghwa curiously.

“Yes bun, appa’s painting his face so he can look even more pretty for Atiny!”

Yeosang can’t take his eyes off of Hongjoong, who’s now tapping glitter eyeshadow onto his eyelids. Papa is right, Yeosang thinks. The many colours and glitter on his face makes his appa look even prettier than he normally does.

“I’ll see you soon, Sangie!” Hongjoong places a kiss on the boy’s forehead before walking out of the dorm.

Yeosang sits there, taken aback with a glossy pink kiss mark on his forehead.

═══════☆═══════

Hongjoong returns home later than he anticipated, checking his phone to find it was nearing 2am. He didn’t expect to find anybody awake, so it startled him when he heard shuffling from his dorm room. Sounded like Seonghwa was awake.

He opens the door to find not Seonghwa, but Yeosang shuffling around in his dresser. What shocks him most is the litany of makeup from his collection, spread about everywhere all over the floor around Yeosang.

“Sangie?” The boy gasps, clearly not having heard Hongjoong.

“Oh Sang, what did you do? Come on, let appa see your face-'' It takes everything in Hongjoong not to gasp in shock when he sees what he thinks is Yeosang’s attempt at his own makeup. He has glitter all over his eyelids and cheeks, random splotches of pink everywhere which are probably blush, and black squiggly lines along the arches of his brows which Hongjoong assumes is from his eyeliner pen. 

“‘M pretty like appa!” Yeosang grins toothily, frankly looking quite proud of himself.

“My sweet baby, you’re already so pretty. Now since it’s sleepy time, let’s get it off, hm?” Yeosang pouts, but nods nonetheless. Honestly, the hardwork and effort put into doing his makeup had made him quite sleepy, so he couldn’t find it in himself to complain.

Hongjoong dabs a cotton wipe with makeup remover along Yeosang’s face. He realizes that he finds himself cleaning Yeosang’s face almost every single day, whether it was from food or something unpredictable like makeup.

“Appa?” Yeosang’s tiny voice breaks his train of thought.

“Yes, prince?”

“‘M I still pretty?” 

Hongjoong smiles, kissing the tip of his nose. “You’re the prettiest boy ever.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guys i realized that i practically get no requests for our precious boy san and don't write much of him, so the next one will be a san-centric fic based off of an old req i never got around to writing ><

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: @sansseireis  
> twitter: @HEEHEEJ1N


End file.
